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Veronica Hederström. Photo.

Veronica Hederström

Postdoctoral fellow

Veronica Hederström. Photo.

Pesticides and habitat loss additively reduce wild bees in crop fields

Author

  • Anina Knauer
  • Subodh Adhikari
  • Georg K.S. Andersson
  • Emilie Andrieu
  • András Báldi
  • Péter Batáry
  • Jordi Bosch
  • Sara L. Bushmann
  • Domingo Cano
  • Romain Carrié
  • Bryan N. Danforth
  • Francis A. Drummond
  • Diane Esquerré
  • Daniel García
  • Claudio Gratton
  • Peter A. Hambäck
  • Anne Kathrin Happe
  • Veronica Hederström
  • Andrea Holzschuh
  • Philippe Jeanneret
  • Riina Kaasik
  • Temitope Kehinde
  • Jessica Knapp
  • Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki
  • Claire Kremen
  • Ilona Leyer
  • Gisela Lüscher
  • Rachel Mallinger
  • Riho Marja
  • Carlos Martínez-Núñez
  • Fabian D. Menalled
  • Leithen K. M’Gonigle
  • Marcos Miñarro
  • Anne Christine Mupepele
  • Charlie C. Nicholson
  • Mark Otieno
  • Annie Ouin
  • Mia G. Park
  • Maria Helena Pereira-Peixoto
  • Antonio J. Pérez
  • Simon G. Potts
  • Annette Reineke
  • Pedro J. Rey
  • Taylor H. Ricketts
  • Justine Rivers-Moore
  • Stuart Roberts
  • Laura Roquer-Beni
  • Maj Rundlöf
  • Ulrika Samnegård
  • Michael J. Samways
  • Janine M. Schwarz
  • Oliver Schweiger
  • Henrik G. Smith
  • Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter
  • Louis Sutter
  • Giovanni Tamburini
  • Deniz Uzman
  • Eve Veromann
  • Aude Vialatte
  • Eneli Viik
  • Mark J.F. Brown
  • Alexandra Maria Klein
  • Matthias Albrecht
Show all

Summary, in English

Pesticide use and habitat loss are major anthropogenic drivers of bee decline, raising global concerns about impaired crop pollination. However, the relative importance of these stressors and their combined impact on bee assemblages comprising species with different traits, such as body size or nesting strategy, remains unknown. Here we addressed these key knowledge gaps in a global quantitative synthesis analysing bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents. We found that both local pesticide hazards and decreasing proportions of semi-natural habitats in surrounding landscapes negatively affected wild bee abundance and species richness in crop fields, while pesticides additionally reduced functional and phylogenetic diversity. Semi-natural habitat availability did not buffer against these negative pesticide effects, nor did we identify any specific traits rending bees more vulnerable to one of the two drivers. Our findings highlight the pressing need to reduce non-target effects of pesticide use and emphasize that conservation and restoration of semi-natural habitats successfully promote wild bees, but are insufficient strategies to mitigate pesticide-driven losses of wild bee pollinators from crop fields.

Department/s

  • Biodiversity and Evolution
  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Department of Biology
  • Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (MGeo)
  • LU Profile Area: Nature-based future solutions

Publishing year

2026

Language

English

Pages

95-104

Publication/Series

Nature Ecology and Evolution

Volume

10

Issue

1

Document type

Article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Environmental Sciences and Nature Conservation (including Biodiversity)

Status

Published

Project

  • Plan Bee: interdisciplinary pollinator conservation for changing agricultural landscapes

Research group

  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2397-334X