Project Description

There is a growing body of evidence that both wild and managed insect pollinators have declined in the last 30 years in abundance and diversity, and parallel declines in the plants they pollinate suggest that the losses are linked. However, the causes of the declines in pollinators and the nature of any links to changes in wildflower populations remain unclear.

The most likely causes are linked to the changes in land use and management in the last few decades. The AgriLand project aims to provide important information on this issue by investigating the links between past land use change and historical pollinator community shifts. Furthermore, the importance of four of the most likely causes of declines will be studied in contrasting landscapes and habitats on a nationwide scale.

The project has three main aims:

• Assess links between historical pollinator population shifts and land use changes. This will involve re-surveying pollinators in sites where they have been studied in the past, to test whether they have been affected by recent changes in land use.
• Assess links between current land use and pollinator density and diversity. We will survey both plants and pollinators in nearly 100 landscapes scattered in 6 regions of Britain, with sites carefully chosen to represent contrasting land management practices. By examining how well both plants and pollinators perform in these sites, we should greatly improve our understanding of how management affects them, how they affect one another, and what we can do to slow or reverse their recent declines.
• Explore mitigation options and disseminate information to relevant stakeholders. The improved understanding of the driving procesess of pollinator and wildflower population changes will bring with it the potential to refine current mitigation strategies. We aim to communicate and discuss our findings with stakeholders, policymakers and other interested parties to esnure wide dissemination of the research.

Follow the project aims or the links to the left for more details.

 

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