Agroecological research covers ecological, economic and social aspects of food production in the broadest sense. The focus of our work is the assessment of the ecological effects of historical and current agricultural use. In cooperation with economic and socio-scientific oriented working groups, these studies should make a contribution to the development of ecologically optimised agricultural systems. The focus is on the pollination of cultivated and wild plants as the central ecosystem service in agricultural landscapes. It is estimated that 75% of cultivated plants worldwide benefit from pollination by flower-visiting insects. For example, the yields of fruit trees and nuts can be increased by up to 90% through the presence of pollinators. Bees are particularly effective here. Besides the honey bee, wild bees have an important function as pollinators. In Germany, there are more than 500 wild bee species, which have a predominantly solitary way of life. The nests are created by individual females in the soil or in existing cavities and dead wood. The female bee collects pollen, which is introduced into a brood cell and serves as larval food. During the collection flights the pollen is transferred between the flowers and the fruit formation of the plants is favoured.

Pollinators in Agricultural Landscapes

A structurally various agricultural landscape offers diverse food resources and nesting habitats for numerous pollinator species. However, due to the increasing intensification of agriculture, e.g. the enlargement of farmland and the increasing use of chemical pesticides, semi-natural landscape elements such as “Knicks”, field shrubs or field margins are being lost. The supply of suitable nesting habitats and flowering resources is dwindling, that fewer and fewer wild bee species can be found in today's agricultural landscape.

Research Focus

To counteract this development, we are investigating how the landscape structure affects the diversity of bumble bees and wild bees in agricultural landscapes. We investigate how pollination performance can be enhanced by networking semi-natural landscape elements in agricultural landscapes. Subject of doctoral and final theses is the extent to which flowering areas and other agri-environmental measures can support this.