Diversity of flower-visiting bees in cereal fields: effects of farming system, landscape composition and regional context.
Abstract
Agri-environment schemes promote organic farming in an attempt to reduce the negative effects of agricultural intensification on farmland biodiversity and ecosystem services such as pollination. Farming system, landscape context and regional differences may all influence biodiversity, but their relative impact and possible interactions have been little explored. Field studies were performed in 3 regions (150 km apart, 400-500 km2/region) in Germany, differing in land use intensity. Within each region, 7 pairs of conventionally and organically cultivated wheat fields (mean size 4 ha; 42 study fields) were selected to encompass a gradient from heterogeneous to homogeneous landscapes within a 1-km radius around each field. Farming system had the greatest influence on biodiversity. Higher bee diversity, flower cover and diversity of flowering plants were recorded in organic compared to conventional fields. Bee diversity was related both to flower cover and diversity of flowering plants, suggesting plant-mediated effects of the farming system. Differences in bee diversity between organic and conventional fields increased with the proportion of arable crops in the surrounding landscape, indicating that processes at the landscape level modified the effectiveness of organic farming in promoting biodiversity. Similar patterns for flower cover and diversity of flowering plants suggested that landscape effects on bee diversity were mainly resource-mediated. After statistically removing the variance explained by flower parameters, residual bee diversity increased with increasing landscape heterogeneity. Bee diversity differed between the three regions, but the effects of farming systems and landscape context were independent of regional differences. Bee diversity in wheat fields was mainly influenced by farming system, but an understanding of local bee diversity needs to incorporate both landscape and regional perspectives. The consistency of the results in the 3 regions provides a reliable basis for management decisions. Agri-environment schemes that promote organic farming in homogeneous landscapes where there are few remaining flower-rich habitats could have the highest relative impact. However, while organic farming could help to sustain pollination services by generalist bees in agricultural landscapes, other measures are required to conserve more specialized bee species in semi-natural habitats.