Can pollination services, species diversity and conservation be simultaneously promoted by sown wildflower strips on farmland?

Abstract

Sown wildflower strips have been used to mitigate against the loss of farmland biodiversity e.g. as a part of agri-environmental schemes. In this four-year field experiment, conducted on six field parcels, the ability of wildflower strips to simultaneously promote the availability of pollination services (using bumblebee abundance as a proxy), species diversity (total species richness of bumblebees, butterflies and diurnal moths) and conservation (abundance of habitat specialist butterflies) was evaluated. The results showed that the first two indicators increased strongly and rapidly in wildflower strips until the third year of the experiment. The conservation indicator increased more slowly and this response was related to the forest cover of the surrounding landscape. Furthermore, the benefits of wildflower strips were largely independent of experimentally varied strip properties. It is concluded that wildflower strips are a flexible mitigation tool to promote different biodiversity targets in agricultural systems. Pollination services and species diversity can be promoted in different kinds of landscapes by ensuring local habitat quality. In the promotion of habitat specialists, landscape matrix quality is more critical.