A5072465778- Plant and animal studies
- Insect and Pesticide Research
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Plant Parasitism and Resistance
- Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Insect-Plant Interactions and Control
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Forest Insect Ecology and Management
- Horticultural and Viticultural Research
- Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Agronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems
- Weed Control and Herbicide Applications
- Economic and Social Issues
- Cardiac Imaging and Diagnostics
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Law and Political Science
- Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications
- Environmental Science and Technology
- Insect behavior and control techniques
- Agriculture and Biological Studies
- Animal and Plant Science Education
- Agriculture and Rural Development Research
- Remote Sensing in Agriculture
- Plant pathogens and resistance mechanisms
- Fungal Plant Pathogen Control
Agroscope
2016-2025
Federal Office for Agriculture
2019-2024
Écologie Fonctionnelle et Écotoxicologie des Agroécosystèmes
2022
Agroécologie
2021
Aarhus University
2021
Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies
2012-2016
Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research
2015
University of Zurich
2007-2012
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
2012
Universitat de les Illes Balears
2012
Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield-related services can be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance of richness, abundance, dominance for pollination; biological pest control; final yields in context ongoing land-use change. Pollinator enemy directly supported...
The western honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) is the most frequent floral visitor of crops worldwide, but quantitative knowledge its role as a pollinator outside managed habitats largely lacking. Here we use global dataset 80 published plant–pollinator interaction networks well effectiveness measures from 34 plant species to assess importance A. in natural habitats. averaging 13% visits across all (range 0–85%), with 5% recorded being exclusively visited by . For 33% and 49% species, however,...
Significance Decades of research have fostered the now-prevalent assumption that noncrop habitat facilitates better pest suppression by providing shelter and food resources to predators parasitoids crop pests. Based on our analysis largest pest-control database its kind, surrounding farm fields does affect multiple dimensions control, but actual responses pests enemies are highly variable across geographies cropping systems. Because often not enhance biological more information about local...
Abstract Managing agricultural landscapes to support biodiversity and ecosystem services is a key aim of sustainable agriculture. However, how the spatial arrangement crop fields other habitats in impacts arthropods their functions poorly known. Synthesising data from 49 studies (1515 landscapes) across Europe, we examined effects landscape composition (% habitats) configuration (edge density) on margins, pest control, pollination yields. Configuration interacted with proportions non‐crop...
Understanding the functional consequences of biodiversity loss is a major goal ecology. Animal-mediated pollination an essential ecosystem function and service provided to mankind. However, little known how pollinator diversity could affect services. Using substitutive design, we experimentally manipulated group (FG) species richness communities investigate their on reproductive success obligate out-crossing model plant species, Raphanus sativus . Both fruit seed set increased with FG...
Providing key resources to animals may enhance both their biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide. We examined performance of annual flower strips targeted at promotion natural pest control in winter wheat. Flower were experimentally sown along 10 wheat fields across a gradient landscape complexity (i.e. proportion non-crop area within 750 m around focal fields) compared with 15 strips. found strong reductions cereal leaf beetle (CLB) density (larvae: 40%; adults second...
Abstract Impacts of climate change on individual species are increasingly well documented, but we lack understanding how these effects propagate through ecological communities. Here combine distribution models with network analyses to test potential impacts >700 plant and animal in pollination seed-dispersal networks from central Europe. We discover that interact a low diversity have narrow climatic niches most vulnerable change. In contrast, biotic specialization plants is not related...
Summary Sown flower strips are increasingly implemented within agri‐environment schemes ( AES ) to increase functional biodiversity and ecosystem services such as pollination or natural pest control, but their effectiveness in achieving these goals remains poorly studied. We tested the performance of experimentally sown annual specifically designed promote enemies aphids control (tailored strips) adjacent potato crops n = 8) compared with fields 10). Flower consisted 11 plant species...
Abstract Sustainable agriculture requires balancing crop yields with the effects of pesticides on non-target organisms, such as bees and other pollinators. Field studies demonstrated that agricultural use neonicotinoid insecticides can negatively affect wild bee species 1,2 , leading to restrictions these compounds 3 . However, besides neonicotinoids, field-based evidence landscape pesticide exposure is lacking. Bees encounter many in landscapes 4–9 this colony growth development any remains...
Summary Agri‐environment schemes attempt to counteract the loss of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services such as pollination natural pest control in agro‐ecosystems. However, only a few studies have evaluated whether these attempts are successful. We studied effects managing meadows according prescriptions ecological compensation areas (ECA), most widely adopted agri‐environment scheme Switzerland, on both pollinator species richness abundance, reproductive success plants nearby...
1 We studied the community and food-web structure of trap-nesting insects in restored meadows at increasing distances within intensively managed grassland 13 sites Switzerland to test if declining species diversity correlates with interaction changes structure. 2 analysed 49 quantitative food webs consisting a total 1382 trophic interactions involving 39 host/prey insect 14 parasitoid/predator species. Species richness abundance three functional groups, bees wasps as lower level natural...
Summary Enhancing key floral resources is essential to effectively mitigate the loss of pollinator diversity and associated provisioning pollination functions in agro‐ecosystems. However, effective measures may diverge among different conservation targets, such as rare species or promotion economically important crop pollinators. We examined what extent diverging goals could be reconciled. analysed plant–bee visitation networks 64 herbaceous semi‐natural habitats representing a gradient...
Compartmentalization—the organization of ecological interaction networks into subsets species that do not interact with other (true compartments) or more frequently among themselves than (modules)—has been identified as a key property for the functioning, stability and evolution communities. Invasions by entomophilous invasive plants may profoundly alter way are compartmentalized. We analysed comprehensive dataset 40 paired plant–pollinator (invaded versus uninvaded) to test this hypothesis....
Forelands of retreating glaciers offer an ideal model system to study community assembly processes during primary succession. As plants colonize the area that is freed from ice they should be accompanied by their pollinators successfully reproduce and spread. However, little known about plant–pollinator networks. We therefore used quantitative network analysis structure interactions at seven sites representing a chronosequence 8 130 years since deglaciation on foreland Morteratsch glacier...
Abstract Land-use change and intensification threaten bee populations worldwide, imperilling pollination services. Global models are needed to better characterise, project, mitigate bees' responses these human impacts. The available data are, however, geographically taxonomically unrepresentative; most from North America Western Europe, overrepresenting bumblebees raising concerns that model results may not be generalizable other regions taxa. To assess whether the geographic taxonomic...
Abstract The explicit and implicit aims of creating ecological focus areas ( EFA s) implementing greening measures in European agro‐ecosystems include the promotion regulatory ecosystem services ES ) to sustain crop production conventional cropping systems. However, extent which these goals are achieved with current policy remains poorly explored. We measured insect‐mediated pollination natural pest control service provisioning 18 winter oilseed rape fields as a function independent...
Abstract Agricultural intensification and associated loss of high‐quality habitats are key drivers insect pollinator declines. With the aim decreasing environmental impact agriculture, 2014 EU Common Policy (CAP) defined a set habitat landscape features (Ecological Focus Areas: EFAs) farmers could select from as requirement to receive basic farm payments. To inform post‐2020 CAP, we performed European‐scale evaluation determine how different EFA options vary in their potential support...
Abstract Body size is an integral functional trait that underlies pollination‐related ecological processes, yet it often impractical to measure directly. Allometric scaling laws have been used overcome this problem. However, most existing models rely upon small sample sizes, geographically restricted sampling and limited applicability for non‐bee taxa. consider biogeography, phylogenetic relatedness, intraspecific variation are urgently required ensure greater accuracy. We measured body as...
Abstract Continuous availability of food resources, such as pollen, is vital for many insects that provide pollination and pest control services to agriculture. However, there a lack knowledge about the shared or complementary use floral resources by species, which hampers more effective landscape management simultaneously promote them in agroecosystems. Here, we quantified pollen bumblebee ( Bombus terrestris ) mason bee Osmia bicornis ), two species recognized important crop pollinators,...
Insect pollination and pest control are pivotal functions sustaining global food production. However, they have mostly been studied in isolation how interactively shape crop yield remains largely unexplored. Using controlled field experiments, we found strong synergistic effects of insect simulated on quantity quality. Their joint effect increased by 23%, with contributing 10%, while their single contributions were 7% 6%, respectively. The potential economic benefit for a farmer from the...