Abstract
Pollinators are threatened worldwide and strategies and measures to support their conservation are proliferating. Among them, the approach “Farming with Alternative Pollinators” (FAP) aims to support pollinators by seeding strips of pollinator-attracting cultivated plants surrounding the crops, and simultaneously providing income to the farmer. In this study we assessed whether this approach supports pollinator diversity in agro-ecosystems and increases flower visitor diversity and abundance in faba bean fields in north-west Morocco. We tested the impact of FAP using a variety of marketable habitat enhancement plants (MHEP): flax, coriander, arugula, chia and canola. A total of 62 pollinator species were recorded, among which almost half of them are new records for the region. Most wild pollinators recorded in faba bean were digger bees (genus Anthophora) and long-horn bees (genus Eucera). MHEP shared diverse flower visitors with faba bean and hosted diverse pollinator groups that did not meet their food requirements from the main crop. The FAP approach highly increased flower visitor abundance and diversity in the whole FAP fields, however it did not generate significant pollinator spillover towards the main crop. Implications for insect conservation: our results show that the FAP approach is an effective approach to mitigate pollinator decline in agro-ecosystems.
Highlights
The huge contribution of pollinators to ecosystem services and agricultural production is being increasingly recognized (Klein et al 2007; Potts et al 2016; Christmann 2019a)
We assessed the impact of the FAP approach on faba bean pollinators using data from three insect samplings (Table 1) and we investigated the impact of the FAP approach on supporting pollinators in the agroecosystem using the pollinators recorded in the four insect samplings (Table 1)
We recorded 261 visitors on faba bean flowers belonging to 17 species and five families of Hymenoptera (99%) and two families of Lepidoptera (1%). 93% of faba bean visitors recorded were Apidae, 3% were Andrenidae, 2% belonged to Scoliidae and Tiphiidae and 2% included Pieridae, Halictidae and Sphingidae (Table 2)
Summary
The huge contribution of pollinators to ecosystem services and agricultural production is being increasingly recognized (Klein et al 2007; Potts et al 2016; Christmann 2019a). Agricultural practices are negatively impacting the natural habitats and floral resources required to sustain pollinators (Aizen and Harder 2009; Gill et al 2016; Aizen et al 2019). The flowering period of pollinator dependent crops can be shorter (i.e. a few weeks) than the time needed for the pollinator to accomplish its full cycle of development. Outside this crop blooming period, pollinators would require additional floral resources. Pollinator independent crops like wheat and barley do not provide nectar or pollen
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