A new research article published in the
Science Advances Journal calls for more research attention to the largely unknown interactive effects of changes in climate and land use on pollinating insects. The article, officially published on 6. May 2022, is a collaborative effort of several academic institutions in Germany, including Safeguard’s coordinating institution University of Würzburg.
Changes in climate and land use are major threats to pollinating insects, an essential functional group. The aim of the study was to disentangle the interactive effects of climate and land use on pollinator communities across the most common habitat and landscape types within an anthropogenic temperate zone.
Presently, to assess influences on pollinator diversity, scientists and authorities must rely on the very few studies that have addressed the 83 combined effects of land use and climate change on biodiversity, and most of these have used modelling approaches. Land-use change is expected to reduce the resilience of species to climate change, while climate change can hamper the survival of species in anthropogenic landscapes. When analysed, this takes more effort and can result in low-quality and perhaps biassed data.
For this reason, authors of the article suggest that in order to disentangle the interactive effects of climate and land use on pollinator communities, a multiscale space-for-time approach should be used. The study highlights management options at several scales to mitigate impacts of climate change on pollinators and their ecosystem services.
You can read more and access the full article
here.
Photo: Location and overview of the study sites and study design