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Porträtt av Henrik Smith. Foto.

Henrik Smith

Professor

Porträtt av Henrik Smith. Foto.

Experimental evidence that honeybees depress wild insect densities in a flowering crop

Författare

  • Sandra A M Lindström
  • Lina Herbertsson
  • Maj Rundlöf
  • Riccardo Bommarco
  • Henrik G. Smith

Summary, in English

While addition of managed honeybees (Apis mellifera) improves pollination of many entomophilous crops, it is unknown if it simultaneously suppresses the densities of wild insects through competition. To investigate this, we added 624 honeybee hives to 23 fields of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) over 2 years and made sure that the areas around 21 other fields were free from honeybee hives. We demonstrate that honeybee addition depresses the densities of wild insects (bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies, marchflies, other flies, and other flying and flower-visiting insects) even in a massive flower resource such as oilseed rape. The effect was independent of the complexity of the surrounding landscape, but increased with the size of the crop field, which suggests that the effect was caused by spatial displacement of wild insects. Our results have potential implications both for the pollination of crops (if displacement of wild pollinators offsets benefits achieved by adding honeybees) and for conservation of wild insects (if displacement results in negative fitness consequences).

Avdelning/ar

  • Biodiversitet
  • Centrum för miljö- och klimatvetenskap (CEC)
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Biodiversitet och bevarandevetenskap

Publiceringsår

2016-11-30

Språk

Engelska

Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volym

283

Issue

1843

Dokumenttyp

Artikel i tidskrift

Förlag

Royal Society Publishing

Ämne

  • Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
  • Ecology

Nyckelord

  • Crop pollinators
  • Flies
  • Interspecific competition
  • Oilseed rape
  • Wild bees

Status

Published

Forskningsgrupp

  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt

  • ISSN: 0962-8452