1 Pesticides are widely used in agriculture and recognised as a threat to pollinators which provide a valuable ecosystem service through pollination. The majority of knowledge on how pesticides affect pollinators comes from laboratory tests. More information is needed on how the effects of pesticides on pollinators and pollination are realised in the field. The impact of pesticides on insect pollinators and pollination was investigated in and around Italian vine fields, at several spatial scales: field (10's-100's metres), landscape (several km's) including a comparison between organic and conventional sites, regional (10's km's). In Britain a national scale analysis explored the link between pesticide pressure and pollinator diversity through time and space. The clearest impact of pesticides in the field was on solitary bees at the landscape scale. Species richness declined in vine fields that had been sprayed with insecticide. At the field scale, after insecticide had been applied to vine fields, butterfly abundance increased furthest from the point of application. No effects were found on pollination services.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:501329 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Brittain, Claire A. |
| Publisher | University of Reading |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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