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Historical decrease in agricultural landscape diversity is associated with shifts in bumble bee species occurrence
Author(s) -
Hemberger Jeremy,
Crossley Michael S.,
Gratton Claudio
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/ele.13786
Subject(s) - species richness , pollinator , ecology , agriculture , biodiversity , crop diversity , agroforestry , geography , agricultural land , biology , agricultural biodiversity , species diversity , sustainability , pollination , pollen
Agricultural intensification is a key suspect among putative drivers of recent insect declines, but an explicit link between historical change in agricultural land cover and insect occurrence is lacking. Determining whether agriculture impacts beneficial insects (e.g. pollinators), is crucial to enhancing agricultural sustainability. Here, we combine large spatiotemporal sets of historical bumble bee and agricultural records to show that increasing cropland extent and decreasing crop richness were associated with declines in over 50% of bumble bee species in the agriculturally intensive Midwest, USA. Critically, we found that high crop diversity was associated with a higher occurrence of many species pre‐1950 even in agriculturally dominated areas, but that current agricultural landscapes are devoid of high crop diversity. Our findings suggest that insect conservation and agricultural production may be compatible, with increasing on‐farm and landscape‐level crop diversity predicted to have positive effects on bumble bees.