The effectiveness of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control, pollination services and crop yield: a quantitative synthesis

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Albrecht, M., Kleijn, D., Williams, N.M., Tschumi, M., Blaauw, B.R., Bommarco, R., Campbell, A.J., Dainese, M., Drummond, F.A., Entling, M.H., Ganser, D., de Groot, G.A., Goulson, D., Grab, H., Hamilton, H., Herzog, F., Isaacs, R., Jacot, K., Jeanneret, P., Jonsson, M., Knop, E., Kremen, C., Landis, D.A., Loeb, G.M., Marini, L., McKerchar, Megan, Morandin, L., Pfister, S.C., Potts, S.G., Rundlof, M., Sardinas, H., Sciligo, A., Thies, C., Tscharntke, T., Venturini, E., Veromann, E., Vollhardt, I.M.G., Wackers, F., Ward, K., Westbury, Duncan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7094-0362, Wilby, A., Woltz, M., Wratten, S. and Sutter, L. (2020) The effectiveness of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control, pollination services and crop yield: a quantitative synthesis. Ecology letters, 23 (10). pp. 1488-1498. ISSN 1461-0248

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Abstract:

Floral plantings are promoted to foster ecological intensification of agriculture through provisioning of ecosystem services. However, a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of different floral plantings, their characteristics and consequences for crop yield is lacking. Here we quantified the impacts of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control (18 studies) and pollination services (17 studies) in adjacent crops in North America, Europe and New Zealand. Flower strips, but not hedgerows, enhanced pest control services in adjacent fields by 16% on average. However, effects on crop pollination and yield were more variable. Our synthesis identifies several important drivers of variability in effectiveness of plantings: pollination services declined exponentially with distance from plantings, and perennial and older flower strips with higher flowering plant diversity enhanced pollination more effectively. These findings provide promising pathways to optimise floral plantings to more effectively contribute to ecosystem service delivery and ecological intensification of agriculture in the future.

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A pdf file of the published article is available to download from this WRaP record.

The contributions of Duncan B. Westbury included data contributed with Megan McKerchar (listed as co-author) who are both affiliated to the School of Science & the Environment, University of Worcester, Worcester, WR2 6AJ, UK. The funders of their research leading to the availability of this data were Waitrose & Partners, Fruition
PO and the University of Worcester are acknowledged.
The Addendum can be views via the link below:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.13748

[The original version of this paper has been updated to reflect these changes.]

© 2020 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Uncontrolled Discrete Keywords:
agroecology, agri-environment schemes, bee pollinators, conservation biological control, ecological intensification, farmland, biodiversity, floral enhancements, natural pest regulation, pollinator reservoirs, sustainable agriculture, wildflower strips, SERG
Legacy Divisions (Admin Only):
College of Health, Life and Environmental Sciences > School of Science and the Environment
Academic Schools:
School of Science and the environment
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Open Access article
Depositing User:
Duncan Westbury
Date Deposited:
23 Jun 2021 07:11
Last Modified:
30 Mar 2026 13:24
Deposited By:
Duncan Westbury
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