FOMN · The impact of fertilisation on mutualistic network structure
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-03-06 → 2019-03-05
- EU contribution
- €175,866
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
The impact of fertilisation on mutualistic network structure
We owe the diversity of the foods we eat to the essential services provided by pollinating insects and the proportion of pollinator-dependent crops has been increasing because of an improved understanding of how these foods contribute to human health. For this reason, reports of declining pollinator populations generate great concern. In Ireland, 50% of native bee species are in decline and 30% are threatened with extinction. Ireland dedicates over 71% of its land to agriculture, the highest proportion of any country in the EU-27. Given pollinators do more poorly in agricultural lands than in adjacent suburban or urban landscapes, it is of particular importance to understand the mechanisms behind pollinator decline in agroecosystems. Weedy field edges have been clearly shown to provide floral resources not only for managed, but also rare wild bees, and are sometimes the sole suppliers of resources to pollinators in intensely managed agricultural regions. At the same time, these weedy field edges are the most vulnerable to agrochemical runoff. Our objective was first to understand how the weedy plants growing on field edges in Ireland interact with native pollinators, but also to determine how these interactions changed when the plants were exposed to field-realistic runoff levels of fertiliser and herbicide. The corollary questions were how plant health was affected by agrochemical runoff, and how this related to the quality and quantity of floral resources. Our results show that agrochemical runoff has serious implications for the health of the plant-pollinator communities in agroecosystems.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Agricultural ecosystems currently comprise approximately forty percent of the terrestrial surface of the earth. In addition, the impacts of agricultural practices extend far beyond the boundaries of crop fields. The drift and runoff of chemicals applied to croplands directly impact the flora and fauna of surrounding biomes. For example, the amount of fertiliser required to maintain the high productivity of modern cropping systems has impacts on the soil microbiota, the species density and primary productivity of plants, and interacts with disturbance to alter the species composition of plant communities. Much less is known about the effects of soil fertilisation on interactions between plants and insects, though preliminary research indicates that soil enhancement can in fact alter pollinator visitation. Our primary objective is to determine the indirect effects of fertilisation on the structure of mutualistic plant-pollinator communities. This work is motivated not only by an interest in the ecosystem services provided to agricultural systems by pollinators, but also by a conservation interest in the impact of fertiliser runoff into surrounding natural habitat. This research will allow us to discuss the potential cascading impacts of widespread fertilisation practices on mutualistic interactions in agricultural and natural ecosystems. In addition, it will improve our understanding of how complex community interactions are formed and influenced by resource availability, with consequences for the fitness of both interacting partners.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN · DublinCoordinatorIreland
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union