Browsing by Subject "rypsi (Brassica rapa ssp. oleifera)"

Pollination is highly important ecosystem service for food production. Especially the importance of insect pollination is high since many crops depend on insect pollination or benefit significantly from it. Populations of insect pollinators have declined globally over many decades and there are several reasons for it. For example, changes in landscape structure due to agricultural intensification causes declines in pollinator habitat such as field margins. Field margins are important for nesting and foraging of many insect pollinators. The aim of this study is to find out how the flowering plants in the field margins of turnip rape (Brassica rapa ssp. oleifera) and caraway (Carum carvi L.) affect the abundance and species richness of insect pollinators. The data of turnip rape has been collected from 34 field margins in the summer of 2017 in the Uusimaa region and the data of caraway has been collected from 30 field margins during summer 2019 also in Uusimaa region. Both insect pollinators and flowering plants were observed and recorded. Out of all the observed insect pollinator species hoverflies were abundant in both the field margins of turnip rape and caraway. The total coverage of flowering plants positively affected the abundance of insect pollinators in the field margins of caraway but the same result wasn´t detected on turnip rape. The total coverage of flowering plants on average was higher in the field margins of caraway than in the field margins of turnip rape. Also, the abundance of insect pollinators in total and the amount of insect pollinator species was higher in the field margins of caraway than turnip rape. The total coverage of flowering plants didn’t affect the amount of insect pollinator species in either the field margins of turnip rape or caraway. The abundance of inflorescences of Fabaceae in the field margins of caraway had a positive effect on the number of bumblebees (Bombus spp.) but the same result was not detected in the field margins of turnip rape. Also, the number of inflorescences of vetches (Vicia) positively affected the number of bumblebees in the field margins of caraway but not in the field margins of turnip rape. The results of this study show that the number of flowering plants in field margins affects the abundance and occurrence of insect pollinators. Further research would be important to understand the effect of field margins of multiple different crops to insect pollinators in order to secure insect pollination as an ecosystem service also in the future.