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Title: The effectiveness of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control, pollination services and crop yield: a quantitative synthesis

Journal Article · · Ecology Letters
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13576 · OSTI ID:1678690
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  1. Agroscope Reckenholzstrasse, Zurich (Switzerland)
  2. Wageningen Univ. (Netherlands)
  3. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States)
  5. Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala (Sweden)
  6. Laboratório de Entomologia Embrapa Amazônia Oriental Belém Pará (Brazil)
  7. Inst. for Alpine Environment Eurac Research, Bolzano (Italy)
  8. Univ. of Maine, Orono, ME (United States)
  9. Univ. of Koblenz‐Landau, Landau (Germany)
  10. Agroscope Reckenholzstrasse, Zurich (Switzerland); Univ. of Bern (Switzerland)
  11. Univ. of Sussex, Brighton (United Kingdom)
  12. Cornell Univ., Geneva, NY (United States)
  13. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
  14. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
  15. Univ. of Padova (Italy)
  16. Univ. of Worcester (United Kingdom)
  17. Pollinator Partnership, San Francisco, CA (United States)
  18. Univ. of Reading, Reading (United Kingdom)
  19. Department of Biology Lund University Lund223 62Sweden
  20. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  21. Gottingen Univ. (Germany)
  22. Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine, Orono, ME (United States)
  23. Estonian Univ. of Life Sciences, Tartu (Estonia)
  24. Lancaster Univ. (United Kingdom). Lancaster Environnent Centre
  25. Lincoln Univ. (New Zealand)

Floral plantings are promoted to foster ecological intensification of agriculture through provisioning of ecosystem services. However, a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of different floral plantings, their characteristics and consequences for crop yield is lacking. Here we quantified the impacts of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control (18 studies) and pollination services (17 studies) in adjacent crops in North America, Europe and New Zealand. Flower strips, but not hedgerows, enhanced pest control services in adjacent fields by 16% on average. However, effects on crop pollination and yield were more variable. Our synthesis identifies several important drivers of variability in effectiveness of plantings: pollination services declined exponentially with distance from plantings, and perennial and older flower strips with higher flowering plant diversity enhanced pollination more effectively. These findings provide promising pathways to optimise floral plantings to more effectively contribute to ecosystem service delivery and ecological intensification of agriculture in the future.

Research Organization:
Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), Madison, WI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0018409
OSTI ID:
1678690
Journal Information:
Ecology Letters, Vol. 23, Issue 10; ISSN 1461-023X
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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The effectiveness of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control, pollination services and crop yield: a quantitative synthesis dataset January 2021
The effectiveness of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control, pollination services and crop yield: a quantitative synthesis dataset January 2021
The effectiveness of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control, pollination services and crop yield: a quantitative synthesis dataset January 2021
The effectiveness of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control, pollination services and crop yield: a quantitative synthesis dataset January 2021
Data from: Local and landscape-level floral resources explain effects of wildflower strips on wild bees across four European countries dataset January 2016
Data from: Tailored flower strips promote natural enemy biodiversity and pest control in potato crops dataset January 2017

Cited By (4)


Figures / Tables (6)