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dc.contributor.authorPfister, SC
dc.contributor.authorEckerter, PW
dc.contributor.authorKrebs, J
dc.contributor.authorCresswell, JE
dc.contributor.authorSchirmel, J
dc.contributor.authorEntling, MH
dc.date.accessioned2018-10-29T15:04:49Z
dc.date.issued2018-09-17
dc.description.abstractIntensive agricultural landscapes can be hostile for bees due to a lack of floral and nesting resources, and due to management-related stress such as pesticide use and soil tillage. This threatens the pollination services that bees deliver to insect-pollinated crops. We studied the effects of farming intensity (organic vs. conventional, number of insecticide applications) and availability of semi-natural habitats at the field and landscape scale on pollinator visits and pollen delivery to pumpkin in Germany. We found that wild bumble bees were the key pollinators of pumpkin in terms of pollen delivery, despite fivefold higher visitation frequency of honey bees. Critically, we observed that the area of cropland had stronger effects on bees' pollen deposition than the area of seminatural habitats. Specifically, a 10% increase of the proportion of cropland reduced pollen delivery by 7%. Pumpkin provides a striking example for a key role of wild pollinators in crop pollination even at high numerical dominance of honey bees. In addition, our findings suggest that habitat conversion to agricultural land is a driver of deteriorating pollination. This underlines the importance to maintain sufficient areas of non-crop habitats in agricultural landscapes.en_GB
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work is part of the QuESSA project and has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No. 311879.en_GB
dc.identifier.citationVol. 8, article 13873en_GB
dc.identifier.doi10.1038/s41598-018-31826-3
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10871/34539
dc.language.isoenen_GB
dc.publisherSpringer Natureen_GB
dc.relation.sourceData Availability: The data supporting the results is archived in Figshare. DOI of the R Script for the Structural Equation Model: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7039991 DOI of the dataset analysed with the Structural Equation Model: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7040000.en_GB
dc.relation.urlhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30224675en_GB
dc.rights© 2018 the Author(s). Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.en_GB
dc.titleDominance of cropland reduces the pollen deposition from bumble beesen_GB
dc.typeArticleen_GB
dc.date.available2018-10-29T15:04:49Z
exeter.place-of-publicationEnglanden_GB
dc.descriptionThis is the final version. Available on open access from Springer Nature via the DOI in this recorden_GB
dc.identifier.journalScientific Reportsen_GB


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