https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0f72
"Global declines in insect populations have important implications for
biodiversity and food security. To offset these declines, habitat restoration
and enhancement in agricultural landscapes could mutually safeguard insect
populations and their pollination services for crop production. The expansion
of utility-scale solar energy development in agricultural landscapes presents
an opportunity for the dual use of the land for energy production and
biodiversity conservation through the establishment of grasses and forbs
planted among and between the photovoltaic solar arrays ('solar-pollinator
habitat').
We conducted a longitudinal field study across 5 years (2018–2022) to
understand how insect communities responded to newly established habitat on
solar energy facilities in agricultural landscapes by evaluating (1) temporal
changes in flowering plant abundance and diversity; (2) temporal changes in
insect abundance and diversity; and (3) the pollination services of
solar-pollinator habitat by comparing pollinator visitation to agricultural
fields near solar-pollinator habitat with other agricultural field locations.
We found increases over time for all habitat and biodiversity metrics: floral
rank, flowering plant species richness, insect group diversity, native bee
abundance, and total insect abundance, with the most noticeable temporal
increases in native bee abundance. We also found positive effects of proximity
to solar-pollinator habitat on bee visitation to nearby soybean (
Glycine max)
fields. Bee visitation to soybean flowers adjacent to solar-pollinator habitat
were comparable to bee visitation to soybeans adjacent to grassland areas
enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, and greater than bee visitation
to soybean field interior and roadside soybean flowers.
Our observations highlight the relatively rapid (<4 year) insect community
responses to grassland restoration activities and provide support for
solar-pollinator habitat as a feasible conservation practice to safeguard
biodiversity and increase food security in agricultural landscapes."
Via Christoph S.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
