Suchergebnisse

As the expansion of solar power spreads through much of the United States, members of the solar industry are working to change how solar energy facilities are designed and presented to the public. This includes the addition of habitat to conserve pollinators. We highlight and discuss ongoing efforts to couple solar energy production with pollinator conservation, noting recent legal definitions of these practices. We summarize key studies from the field of ecology, bee conservation, and our experience working with members of the solar industry (e.g., contribution to legislation defining solar pollinator habitat). Several recently published studies that employed similar practices to those proposed for solar developments reveal features that should be replicated and encouraged by the industry. These results suggest the addition of native, perennial flowering vegetation will promote wild bee conservation and more sustainable honey beekeeping. Going forward, there is a need for oversight and future research to avoid the misapplication of this promising but as of yet untested practice of coupling solar energy production with pollinator-friendly habitat. We conclude with best practices for the implementation of these additions to realize conservation and agricultural benefits.

This paper considers the potential for beekeepers' knowledges to be incorporated into participatory policy processes addressing current challenges to pollinator health. Pollinator decline is a serious issue for future food security and wider environmental resilience, with important implications for rural land use governance. The precipitous decline in global pollinator populations over recent years has resulted in a range of government initiatives to tackle the causes identified. In the UK this includes a National Pollinator Strategy in England and Pollinator Action Plan in Wales. These plans are notable for their introduction of a more participatory approach, incorporating 'lay-knowledge' and citizen science from beekeeping practitioners alongside scientific data. This paper presents evidence from interviews and participant observation with key stakeholders within the beekeeping community in the UK, alongside archival material from the Bee Farmers' Association, to assess the knowledge controversies arising from this strategy. Specifically, the paper considers the distinction of beekeepers' knowledges from typically acknowledged expert sources, whilst also reflecting upon aspects of plurality and tension within the beekeeping community. The paper concludes by outlining some areas of contestation between beekeepers and the wider policy and scientific community, which could impact on the future success of more participatory forums. This includes, firstly, evidence of hierarchies and exclusions in the forms of knowledge considered, when insights from professional scientists are privileged above those from beekeepers and when some beekeepers knowledges are given more credit than others. Secondly, we consider limitations resulting from policy makers' evidence requirements for peer-reviewed science, which can further exacerbate the exclusion of beekeepers' insights and lead to scenarios whereby policy only engages with a narrow set of criteria that may not be beneficial when advanced in isolation from the broader system changes. Finally, aspects of policy clash are outlined between pollinator conservation and wider agricultural strategies that seek to maintain a productivist agenda.

International audience ; The decline of pollinators has been demonstrated scientifically and this phenomenon is widely recognized by both the general public and by stakeholders. Since pollinators face different threats that are all linked to human activities, there is a unique and unprecedented responsibility for people to conserve pollinators, requiring political action to counter the substantial worldwide risk of pollinator loss. As our perception of the situation is rapidly changing, as a result of the steady accumulation of international and national reports as well as new scientific findings, we propose here to provide an updated overview of pollinator conservation globally. We present the key messages and the proposed solutions found in international reports and assessments, how European countries have interpreted these solutions proposed in the context of existing international frameworks. Next, we analyze how scientific research is addressing the issue of pollinator conservation through different international, European and national programs. The analysis of the keywords used in published scientific articles also allows us to characterize how the scientific community has engaged with this issue over time. Finally, we focus on how France and Belgium have reacted to the observed decline of pollinators, and examine their national interpretations, conservation actions and research contributions.

International audience ; The decline of pollinators has been demonstrated scientifically and this phenomenon is widely recognized by both the general public and by stakeholders. Since pollinators face different threats that are all linked to human activities, there is a unique and unprecedented responsibility for people to conserve pollinators, requiring political action to counter the substantial worldwide risk of pollinator loss. As our perception of the situation is rapidly changing, as a result of the steady accumulation of international and national reports as well as new scientific findings, we propose here to provide an updated overview of pollinator conservation globally. We present the key messages and the proposed solutions found in international reports and assessments, how European countries have interpreted these solutions proposed in the context of existing international frameworks. Next, we analyze how scientific research is addressing the issue of pollinator conservation through different international, European and national programs. The analysis of the keywords used in published scientific articles also allows us to characterize how the scientific community has engaged with this issue over time. Finally, we focus on how France and Belgium have reacted to the observed decline of pollinators, and examine their national interpretations, conservation actions and research contributions.

International audience ; The decline of pollinators has been demonstrated scientifically and this phenomenon is widely recognized by both the general public and by stakeholders. Since pollinators face different threats that are all linked to human activities, there is a unique and unprecedented responsibility for people to conserve pollinators, requiring political action to counter the substantial worldwide risk of pollinator loss. As our perception of the situation is rapidly changing, as a result of the steady accumulation of international and national reports as well as new scientific findings, we propose here to provide an updated overview of pollinator conservation globally. We present the key messages and the proposed solutions found in international reports and assessments, how European countries have interpreted these solutions proposed in the context of existing international frameworks. Next, we analyze how scientific research is addressing the issue of pollinator conservation through different international, European and national programs. The analysis of the keywords used in published scientific articles also allows us to characterize how the scientific community has engaged with this issue over time. Finally, we focus on how France and Belgium have reacted to the observed decline of pollinators, and examine their national interpretations, conservation actions and research contributions.

International audience ; The decline of pollinators has been demonstrated scientifically and this phenomenon is widely recognized by both the general public and by stakeholders. Since pollinators face different threats that are all linked to human activities, there is a unique and unprecedented responsibility for people to conserve pollinators, requiring political action to counter the substantial worldwide risk of pollinator loss. As our perception of the situation is rapidly changing, as a result of the steady accumulation of international and national reports as well as new scientific findings, we propose here to provide an updated overview of pollinator conservation globally. We present the key messages and the proposed solutions found in international reports and assessments, how European countries have interpreted these solutions proposed in the context of existing international frameworks. Next, we analyze how scientific research is addressing the issue of pollinator conservation through different international, European and national programs. The analysis of the keywords used in published scientific articles also allows us to characterize how the scientific community has engaged with this issue over time. Finally, we focus on how France and Belgium have reacted to the observed decline of pollinators, and examine their national interpretations, conservation actions and research contributions.

International audience ; The decline of pollinators has been demonstrated scientifically and this phenomenon is widely recognized by both the general public and by stakeholders. Since pollinators face different threats that are all linked to human activities, there is a unique and unprecedented responsibility for people to conserve pollinators, requiring political action to counter the substantial worldwide risk of pollinator loss. As our perception of the situation is rapidly changing, as a result of the steady accumulation of international and national reports as well as new scientific findings, we propose here to provide an updated overview of pollinator conservation globally. We present the key messages and the proposed solutions found in international reports and assessments, how European countries have interpreted these solutions proposed in the context of existing international frameworks. Next, we analyze how scientific research is addressing the issue of pollinator conservation through different international, European and national programs. The analysis of the keywords used in published scientific articles also allows us to characterize how the scientific community has engaged with this issue over time. Finally, we focus on how France and Belgium have reacted to the observed decline of pollinators, and examine their national interpretations, conservation actions and research contributions.

International audience ; The decline of pollinators has been demonstrated scientifically and this phenomenon is widely recognized by both the general public and by stakeholders. Since pollinators face different threats that are all linked to human activities, there is a unique and unprecedented responsibility for people to conserve pollinators, requiring political action to counter the substantial worldwide risk of pollinator loss. As our perception of the situation is rapidly changing, as a result of the steady accumulation of international and national reports as well as new scientific findings, we propose here to provide an updated overview of pollinator conservation globally. We present the key messages and the proposed solutions found in international reports and assessments, how European countries have interpreted these solutions proposed in the context of existing international frameworks. Next, we analyze how scientific research is addressing the issue of pollinator conservation through different international, European and national programs. The analysis of the keywords used in published scientific articles also allows us to characterize how the scientific community has engaged with this issue over time. Finally, we focus on how France and Belgium have reacted to the observed decline of pollinators, and examine their national interpretations, conservation actions and research contributions.

PUBLISHED ; Despite a substantial increase in scientific, public and political interest in pollinator health and many practical conservation efforts, incorporating initiatives across a range of scales and sectors, pollinator health continues to decline. We review existing pollinator conservation initiatives and define their common structural elements. We argue that implementing effective action for pollinators requires further scientific understanding in six key areas: i) status and trends of pollinator populations; ii) direct and indirect drivers of decline, including their interactions; iii) risks and co-benefits of pollinator conservation actions for ecosystems; iv) benefits of pollinator conservation for society; v) the effectiveness of context-specific, tailored, actionable solutions and vi) integrated frameworks that explicitly link benefits and values with actions to reverse declines. We propose use of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Conceptual Framework to link issues and identify critical gaps in both understanding and action for pollinators. This approach reveals the centrality of addressing the recognised indirect drivers of decline, such as patterns of global trade and demography, which are frequently overlooked in current pollinator conservation efforts. Finally, we discuss how existing and new approaches in research can support efforts to move beyond these shortcomings in pollinator conservation initiatives.

Understanding the dynamics of species interactions under the threats of habitat loss and fragmentation can be key to develop measures preventing further degradation of natural and agricultural systems. Agroecological knowledge and state of the art technologies can help to conciliate the often-discrepant objectives of biodiversity conservation and agricultural production. Specifically, information on the characteristics of plant-pollinator networks in agroecosystems can unveil the most efficient strategies to preserve ecosystem functionality and pollination services provision. In chapter 1, I focused on the contributions of new technology to the objective of turning agricultural landscapes increasingly compatible with biodiversity. I reviewed the applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in ecology and precision agriculture. I 1) identified existing applications, 2) discussed limitations and advantages of the current technology, 3) highlighted knowledge gaps and 4) proposed new applications. In chapter 2, I studied the characteristics of a plant-pollinator metanetwork of calcareous grasslands embedded in an agricultural matrix. I characterized and discussed the structural properties of the network that determine its stability and resilience to perturbations. Furthermore, I identified the traits of the most central nodes in the network. I found that the metanetwork was significantly more modular and less connected than expected by chance. This reflects the existence of many fragment-unique interactions and is an indication of poor metanetwork stability. I also demonstrated that habitat size and the diversity of land cover types in the surroundings of a grassland fragment are significant predictors of site centrality. Thus, these features can help to identify the most important fragments for metanetwork cohesiveness. Additionally, I found that the centrality of interactions depends on the pollinator size, species identity and also on the plant's habitat specialization. In chapter 3, I compared plant-pollinator networks constructed with flower visitation data to networks constructed with pollen transport data. The level of specialization of pollen transport networks was higher than that of visitation networks, as half of the interactions in the visitation networks did not occur in the pollen transport networks. This highlights the fact that visitation does not necessarily imply pollen transport, and I discussed its implications for the conservation of pollination. Considering that high specialization is known to be associated with low stability in mutualistic networks, this result has important implications for conservation. According to these findings, traditional studies on plant-pollinator networks, based on visitation data, would overestimate the stability of pollination networks. Additionally, I identified that almost a third of the total number of interactions found are difficult to spot given their low frequency, occurring only in the pollen transport networks. Finally, I found positive effects of landscape diversity on the total number and proportion of single-fragment interactions for pollen transport, but not for visitation networks. In conclusion, the protection of large and small calcareous grasslands as well as the enhancement of landscape heterogeneity was found to be essential for the maintenance of the plant-pollinator metanetwork. Furthermore, the importance of interactions among habitat specialist plants and large-bodied generalist pollinators appeared to be fundamental to connect the plant-pollinator metanetwork. Nonetheless, small solitary bees and the habitat specialist butterfly Polyommatus coridon also played a central role for the plant-pollinator networks in calcareous grasslands. By identifying the most central plants, pollinators and interactions at the metacommunity level, the information reported in this work can inform tailored management measures to protect them. Among others, I suggest considering plant species' roles in the metanetwork when applying conservation measures, such as flower strips, and landscape coordination among farmers to increase crop diversification. Moreover, I showed the great potential of UAVs to contribute to such conservation measures and to biodiversity management in agricultural landscapes. UAVs can assist in diverse tasks such as quantifying encroachment of calcareous grasslands and plant diversity monitoring. Additionally, they can contribute to farmer´s cropland management and agri-environmental schemes surveillance by governmental agencies. ; 2021-04-29

The rapid growing urbanization is one of the main threats to urban biodiversity and the ecosystem services (ES) that they provide. Pollination is one of the most affected ES in urban areas mainly due to the decline in urban green areas (UGAs) and other factors derived from urbanization itself. Considering this and the already existing global pollinator crisis, the aim of this work is the evaluation of urban green infrastructure as an opportunity for pollinator conservation. For that purpose, the ornamental vegetation of a medium-sized Mediterranean city (Granada, south-eastern Spain) was determined. The floral origin, phenology and floral traits of the conforming species and the pollinator species that they attract were analysed. Additionally, NMDS analysis were performed in order to determine if the "Pollination Syndromes" are a useful tool to actually predict the pollinator group attracted to a certain plant species. It was found that UGAs have huge potential for pollinator conservation as the major part of its ornamental species have an entomophilic pollination strategy. However, there is an imbalance in the availability of flower resources throughout the year. Hence, the addition of species flowering out of the main flowering season would be advisable in order to get a continuous supply of floral resources for pollinators. A current disproportion in the potentially attracted pollinator groups was also found out, being bees the predominantly attracted ones. However, results showed that the "Pollination Syndromes" are a tool with limitations at the moment and needs to be used with considerations. Thus, the specific plant-pollinator relationship should be determined through field work in each case-study. Further studies considering key factors such as urban connectivity and fragmentation would be desirable to ensure a comprehensive management for urban pollinators. ; Ministry of Education and Professional Training, Government of Spain, FPU2019, ; Spanish Government RTI2018-101154-A-100 ; University of Granada, ...