Abstract
BackgroundInsect pollinator abundance, in particular that of bees, has been shown to be high where there is a super-abundance of floral resources; for example in association with mass-flowering crops and also in gardens where flowering plants are often densely planted. Since land management affects pollinator numbers, it is also likely to affect the resultant pollination of plants growing in these habitats. We hypothesised that the seed or fruit set of two plant species, typically pollinated by bumblebees and/or honeybees might respond in one of two ways: 1) pollination success could be reduced when growing in a floriferous environment, via competition for pollinators, or 2) pollination success could be enhanced because of increased pollinator abundance in the vicinity.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe compared the pollination success of experimental plants of Glechoma hederacea L. and Lotus corniculatus L. growing in gardens and arable farmland. On the farms, the plants were placed either next to a mass-flowering crop (oilseed rape, Brassica napus L. or field beans, Vicia faba L.) or next to a cereal crop (wheat, Triticum spp.). Seed set of G. hederacea and fruit set of L. corniculatus were significantly higher in gardens compared to arable farmland. There was no significant difference in pollination success of G. hederacea when grown next to different crops, but for L. corniculatus, fruit set was higher in the plants growing next to oilseed rape when the crop was in flower.Conclusions/SignificanceThe results show that pollination services can limit fruit set of wild plants in arable farmland, but there is some evidence that the presence of a flowering crop can facilitate their pollination (depending on species and season). We have also demonstrated that gardens are not only beneficial to pollinators, but also to the process of pollination.
Highlights
The anthropogenic introduction of large quantities of flowering plants has occurred both in arable and urban habitats
G. hederacea and L. corniculatus for which seed set is significantly enhanced by insect pollination, measurements of seed and fruit set showed there were significantly higher levels of pollination in plants growing in tubs in gardens, compared to those growing in tubs in arable field margins in Hertfordshire (Fig 4; Fig 5)
Interpretation of the patterns is made with caution using the surrogate measure of the abundance of social bees foraging in the adjacent margin or border, and the abundance of co-flowering bee forage plants in the margin
Summary
The anthropogenic introduction of large quantities of flowering plants has occurred both in arable and urban habitats. In urban gardens high densities of flowering plants are cultivated for their amenity value, while in agriculture the cultivation of massflowering crops such as oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) and field beans (Vicia faba L.) in the UK has been arguably the most dramatic change to the floral landscape for centuries. A similar situation exists in urban gardens where floral resources provided by cultivated plants are plentiful over large areas. In the case of garden plants though, there tends to be nectar and pollen available from different species through most of the year [6] whereas the mass-flowering crops only provide resources from one species over a relatively short period of a few weeks. We hypothesised that the seed or fruit set of two plant species, typically pollinated by bumblebees and/or honeybees might respond in one of two ways: 1) pollination success could be reduced when growing in a floriferous environment, via competition for pollinators, or 2) pollination success could be enhanced because of increased pollinator abundance in the vicinity
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