Agri-environmental interventions enhance climatic niche complementarity and resilience of wild crop pollinator communities

The exponential increase of mobile telephony has led to a pronounced increase in electromagnetic fields in the environment that may affect pollinator communities and threaten pollination as a key ecosystem service. Previous studies conducted on model species under laboratory conditions have shown negative effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) on reproductive success, development, and navigation of insects. However, the potential effects that widespread mobile telecommunication antennas have on wild pollinator communities outside the laboratory microcosm are still unknown. Here we studied the effects of EMR from telecommunication antennas on key wild pollinator groups (wild bees, hoverflies, bee flies, remaining flies, beetles, butterflies, and wasps). We measured EMR at 4 distances (50, 100, 200 and 400 m) from 10 antennas (5 on Limnos Island and 5 on Lesvos Island, eastern Mediterranean, Greece), and correlated EMR values with insect abundance and richness (the latter only for wild bees and hoverflies). All pollinator groups except butterflies were affected by EMR. In both islands, beetle, wasp, and hoverfly abundance decreased with EMR, whereas the abundance of underground-nesting wild bees and bee flies unexpectedly increased with EMR. The effect of EMR on the abundance of remaining flies differed between islands. With respect to species richness, EMR only tended to have a negative effect on hoverflies in Limnos. As EMR affected the abundance of several insect guilds negatively, and changed the composition of wild pollinators in natural habitats, it might also have additional ecological and economic impacts on the maintenance of wild plant diversity, crop production and human welfare.

ABSTRACT: Habitat management within agroecosystems can conserve wild pollinator communities by providing nesting and floral resources. However, demarcating arable land for conservation may reduce farm income. A conciliatory habitat management plan thus consists of planting harvestable commodities which offer pollinator resources. This study’s goal was to determine whether a single species annual flowering crop could support an abundant and diverse wild pollinator community despite its own uniformity. Local bee communities were sampled using pan traps and hand collection within sixty 10 m2 plots of a sunflower, Helianthus annuus L., field and thirty 10 m2 plots within a meadow three times throughout August, 2012. In total, 2316 bees were collected with Bombus impatiens Cresson constituting 81.5% of sampled bees. Examined collectively, hand collections yielded significantly higher bee abundances in the sunflower field (P < 0.01) across every sampling date. Conversely, an equivalent number of pan-trapped be...

The pollinator conservation approach “Farming with Alternative Pollinators”: Success and drivers

Homogeneous tree crop plantations can adversely impact wild pollinator communities by limiting the temporal continuity of food and the availability of nesting sites. Identifying how structural differences between plantations and natural vegetation influence pollinator communities is necessary for ecological management of agroecosystems. Communities of potential wild pollinators (native bees, wasps, flies) were compared between monoculture almond plantations and native vegetation in a semi‐arid region of southern Australia, before, during and after the late winter almond flowering period. Abundance and richness of each insect group were related to site heterogeneity and keystone structural resources at each site, focusing on food and nesting resources. Relationships with site heterogeneity varied between taxa and across months. Native bee abundance and richness were strongly associated with specific keystone resources, despite showing no association with site heterogeneity. The present study highlights the value of focusing on biologically meaningful resources when investigating relationships between insects and habitat, rather than on generalized heterogeneity metrics. The results suggest that maintaining keystone resources in agroecosystems can support the conservation of insects and ecosystem services, especially in areas where homogeneous agricultural systems overlap dynamic natural ecosystems.

Introduction/Background: Globally, and in the United States, where climate-related events including hurricanes, wildfires, and floods have intensified and caused billions in damages, population displacement, and public health system strain, climate change presents grave difficulties to communities everywhere. Often lacking infrastructure and resources, vulnerable populations are disproportionately impacted and lack the ability to adapt or bounce back. Although infrastructure improvements and disaster readiness are important technical answers, without robust social institutions they are inadequate. Resilience can be developed and resources mobilised in great part by social capital—community networks, shared values, and group support. Still underexplored, though, are its particular contributions to climate resilience as well as techniques governments might use to properly include social capital into resilience planning. Materials and Methods: Using a secondary data analysis technique, this study addresses its goals by concentrating on qualitative and quantitative data. Examining more than forty sources—including official gazettes, policy documents, scientific publications, and government reports—helps one to understand the part social capital plays in building community resilience in the United States. Analysing case studies of successful resilience programs helped to pinpoint important themes and approaches for improving community resilience to climate change by substituting alternative data gathering techniques such as interviews for main data collecting tools. Results: Climate change offers important issues in the U.S., with severe weather events producing economic losses, relocation, and health hazards, especially for vulnerable groups. Resilience depends on social capital, as seen in New Orleans's post-Katrina recovery where networks enabled rebuilding; Paradise, California, where community ties aided wildfire preparedness; NYC's Red Hook, where local responses managed Hurricane Sandy's impact; Chicago's 1995 heatwave, where strong social networks reduced deaths; and Houston's Hurricane Harvey response, where grassroots groups coordinated aid. These stories show the value of social ties in building resilience. Discussion: Governments should prioritise establishing grassroots groups, integrating social capital into catastrophe preparedness, and increasing public involvement to boost climate resilience. Effective communication, targeted support for vulnerable groups, and multi-level governance coordination are necessary. Investments in community-driven early warning systems, inclusive urban planning, and areas that promote social relationships can strengthen adaptive capacity. Long-term study on social capital's role will refine policy, guaranteeing equitable and sustainable responses to climate issues. Conclusion: The link between climate change and community resilience underscores the relevance of social capital. By developing social networks and encouraging inclusive solutions, communities can better adapt and recover from climate impacts. Policymakers should prioritize grassroots activities and address systemic disparities to promote sustainable resilience against climate concerns.

Pollinators are essential for crop pollination, but pollinators differ in their pollination efficiency. In urban areas, environmental filters such as soil sealing or the urban heat island lead to biotic homogenisation of pollinator communities, with generalist species being favoured while specialist species are filtered out. Therefore, efficient pollinators may be excluded from urban areas. In the context of the development of urban agriculture, urban areas require pollination by efficient pollinators. Here, we ask whether pollinators sustained in urban environments are equally efficient, and whether urbanisation impacts the efficiency of pollinators delivering pollination services. Using strawberry and raspberry as experimental plants, we carried out single visit experiments over 2 years (2023 and 2024) in spring and autumn, to assess pollination efficiency in densely urbanised and suburban sites in the region of Paris (France). We measured fruit mass, malformation and seed set of fruits which developed from flowers having received a single visit from a pollinator. We found that bumblebees were more efficient than honeybees as pollinators of raspberry, but not strawberry, as measured by fruit mass. Bumblebees were also more efficient than small and large solitary bees for pollinating strawberry, and more efficient than large solitary bees for pollinating raspberry. These differences were detected on mass for strawberries, and on mass, seed set and fruit malformation for raspberries. Practical implication : Environmental filters in urban environments tend to favour few generalist pollinator species. On one hand, these environments support honeybees, which we found were not necessarily the most efficient. On the other hand, wild pollinators, in particular bumblebees, were more efficient than honeybees for pollination of strawberry and raspberry. Thus, urban conservation strategies should focus on promoting these wild and efficient pollinators by planting beneficial plant species in flower beds and providing nesting habitats for ground nesting pollinators. This would promote diverse and efficient pollinators and thus enhance pollination services for urban agriculture.

Wild bee pollinator communities of lowbush blueberry fields: Spatial and temporal trends

Extreme droughts are affecting millions of livestock farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, causing water shortages, famines, migration and fatalities. The construction of new small water infrastructures (SWIs), such as deep wells and boreholes, is increasingly supported by climate resilience programmes of non-governmental organizations and national governments to improve water availability for agro-pastoralists, especially as an emergency response to extreme droughts. Although the short-term benefits of SWI are clear, their potential cumulative impact and their long-term effects on the resilience of dryland communities remain unclear. Here, building on in-depth anthropological literature from five key African drylands, we model post-drought pastoralists’ dynamics related to SWI. We show that while developing new SWI releases water shortages in the short term, it can erode traditional adaptation practices without adequate governance. We further illustrate how our model captures early quantitative signals of resilience loss in dryland Angola. This indicates that poorly governed water development in African drylands can be a limiting factor for the long-term resilience of pastoral communities facing a range of social, demographic, economic and climate challenges.

The article analyses the policy engagement component of a research project on climate resilience in vulnerable communities that took place in Cape Town, South Africa. Conducted in 2022, the engagement included community and stakeholder events in three research sites, and a cross-cutting policy event with municipal officials, held at the end of the project. Importantly, this policy engagement process occurred in a context of political marginalisation, that is, one characterised by low trust, and little meaningful representation or even communication between these vulnerable communities and the city. This article examines the impact of policy engagement on political relations between local government and vulnerable communities. The overall methodology of the article is qualitative, using an illustrative case-study research design to unpack the subjective experiences of both government officials and residents of vulnerable communities. Primary data included many primary documents, direct observation of the engagements and post-event interviews. First, the engagement process created new 'invented' spaces for the representation of community perspectives to the city, and the city's perspective to the community. Second, the engagement facilitated community self-representation through educating community members to advocate for their ideas in these new invented spaces. Third, this engagement tended to be more constructive and deliberative than polarising and confrontational. Drawing on the theoretical framework of 'political mediation', the policy engagement process is characterised as a positive instance of democratic mediation through 'empowered representation', with some specified limitations.

Enhancing climate resilience in agrarian communities requires improving the underlying socioecological conditions for farmers to engage in adaptation and mitigation strategies, alongside collaborative and redistributive community development to reduce vulnerabilities. To overcome barriers to climate resilience in the Philippines, a grassroots farmer-led organization comprised of resource-poor smallholders, scientists, and nongovernmental organizations have organized a polycentric network over the past 30 years to implement food sovereignty initiatives. We explore the extent to which the network’s decentralized and farmer-led organizational structure; programming and services; promotion of diversified, organic, and agroecological farming systems; and political organizing and advocacy create broadly accessible and diverse pathways for resource-poor smallholders to build climate resilience. We find that the Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-Unlad ng Agrikultura’s (Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development) polycentric governance approach directly addresses the root causes of vulnerability, particularly in working to reclaim farmer rights and control over resources, connecting local and global struggles, and revitalizing agrobiodiversity and place-based knowledge.

The climate is changing at a fast rate and the impact of the same can now be felt across all the world. The worst hit is the Asian countries which are the most vulnerable when it comes to extreme events. To cope with same, local level actions are the most effective if originated from local community and local context. Traditional wisdom originates from deep cultural and environmental considerations along with generations transformation that transcends these traditional practices to a much-suited action with respect to resiliency. The paper establishes the role of such traditional practices in the achievement of climate resilience in communities. The authors draw insights from the existing indigenous practices from various Asian countries and try to analyze the various challenges and potential in adoption of such practices on larger scale. The paper concludes with recommendations to overcome such challenges.

The intertwined effects of natural vegetation, local flower community, and pollinator diversity on the production of almond trees

Pollinators play a crucial role in global crop production, enhancing crop yields, nutritional value and fruit quality. However, their wild populations worldwide have been experiencing alarming declines. We investigated the contribution of wild pollinators to nutrition and farmer income in Canada, while examining the spatial distribution of pollination services. We used publicly available data on crop types, yields, nutrient content, and farm gate values, alongside information on natural habitats. Our findings suggest that wild pollinators in Canada help sustain the equivalent of approximately 24.4 million people each year in terms of nutrition and generate an annual income of nearly CAD$2.8 billion for farmers. To provide context, these estimates exceed half of the Canadian population and correspond to 5% of total national crop-related farm income. However, significant benefit gaps exist due to the lack of nearby pollinator habitat and insufficient pollination of dependent crops at a national scale. Addressing these gaps could potentially provide an additional nutrition supply for nearly 30 million equivalent people and increase farmer income by CAD$3 billion. We discuss how and where efforts focused on preserving and enhancing wild pollinator habitats, promoting sustainable farming practices, and raising awareness among stakeholders are crucial for the long-term viability of wild pollinator populations and the sustainability of agricultural systems in Canada. Our research underscores the urgent need for a national strategy aimed at safeguarding wild pollinators. Implementing such a strategy would not only contribute to strengthening local economies but also ensure the production of nutritionally essential food.

Purpose Recent US federal executive orders have prioritized equity within the federal government, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has declared equity as a foundational pillar in their 2022–2026 Strategic Plan. This research study investigates the distributive equity of the most locally disseminated FEMA grant, the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG). Design/methodology/approach The Commonwealth of Virginia was selected for our research study due to its exposure to natural hazards, recent disaster losses, variance among local emergency management programs, and high-profile political disputes against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. EMPG data from 2020 to 2023 were analyzed for correlations with social vulnerability (SoVI®), community resilience (BRIC), previous disaster losses (SHELDUS), and the National Risk Index (NRI). A difference of means test was conducted on the jurisdictions that opted out of participation in the EMPG. Findings Virginia’s current EMPG funding is allocated disproportionately to wealthier local jurisdictions with lower social vulnerability, higher community resilience, and lower previous disaster losses. Jurisdictions that opted-out or received the minimum amounts had a disproportionately higher amount of total disaster losses. Originality/value This study provides a novel approach to evaluating the equity of public funding dedicated to local disaster preparedness. The findings are instructive to federal lawmakers, state governments and global initiatives in climate resilience with a similar allocation process focused solely on population sizes. The framework of this research study is easily replicable, and the metrics are publicly available for future researchers.

BackgroundInsect pollinators play an important role in crop pollination, but the relative contribution of wild pollinators and honey bees to pollination is currently under debate. There is virtually no information available on the strength of pollination services and the identity of pollination service providers from Asian smallholder farming systems, where fields are small, and variation among fields is high. We established 18 winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) fields along a large geographical gradient in Jiangxi province in China. In each field, oilseed rape plants were grown in closed cages that excluded pollinators and open cages that allowed pollinator access. The pollinator community was sampled by pan traps for the entire oilseed rape blooming period.ResultsOilseed rape plants from which insect pollinators were excluded had on average 38% lower seed set, 17% lower fruit set and 12% lower yield per plant, but the seeds were 17% heavier, and the caged plants had 28% more flowers and 18% higher aboveground vegetative biomass than plants with pollinator access. Oilseed rape plants thus compensate for pollination deficit by producing heavier seeds and more flowers. Regression analysis indicated that local abundance and diversity of wild pollinators were positively associated with seed set and yield/straw ratio, while honey bee abundance was not related to yield parameters.ConclusionsWild pollinator abundance and diversity contribute to oilseed rape yield by enhancing plant resource allocation to seeds rather than to above-ground biomass. This study highlights the importance of the conservation of wild pollinators to support oilseed rape production in small-holder farming systems in China.