The whereabouts of flower visitors: contrasting land-use preferences revealed by a country-wide survey based on citizen science.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In the past decade, accumulating evidence of pollinator decline has raised concerns regarding the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and the sustainability of crop production. Although land-use changes have been advanced as the major causes, the affinities of most wild pollinators with the main land-use types remain unknown. Filling this gap in our knowledge is a prerequisite to improving conservation and management programmes.

Methodology/principal findings

We estimated the affinity of flower visitors with urban, agricultural and natural land-uses using data from a country-wide scale monitoring scheme based on citizen science (Spipoll). We tested whether the affinities differed among insect orders and according to insect frequency (frequent or infrequent). Our

SUBMITTER: Deguines N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3446938 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature