Critical habitat thresholds for effective pollinator conservation in agricultural landscapes

Bishop, G. A., Kleijn, D., Albrecht, M., Bartomeus, I., Isaacs, R., Kremen, C., Magrach, A., Ponisio, L. C., Potts, S. G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2045-980X, Scheper, J., Smith, H. G., Tscharntke, T., Albrecht, J., Anstrom, J., Badenhausser, I., Baldi, A., Basu, P., Berggren, A., Beyer, N., Bluthgen, N., Bonmmarco, R., Brosi, B. J., Cohen, H., Cole, L. J., Denning, K. R., Devoto, M., Ekroos, J., Fornoff, F., Foster, B. L., Gillespie, M. A.K., González-Varo, J. P., Goulson, D., Grass, I., Hass, A. L., Herrera, J. M., Holzschuh, A., Hopfenmüller, S., Izquierdo, J., Jauker, B., Kallioniemi, E. P., Kirsch, F., Klein, A.-M., Kovács-Hostyánszki, A., Krauss, J., Krimmer, E., Kunin, W. E., Laha, S., Lindström, S. A.M., Mandelik, Y., Marcacci, G., McCracken, D. I., Monasterolo, M., Morandin, L. A., Morrison, J., Stojnic, S. M., Ollerton, J., Persson, A. S., Phillips, B. B., Piko, J. I., Power, E. F., Quinlan, G. M., Rundlöf, M., Raderschall, C. A., Riggi, L. G.A., Roberts, S. P.M., Roth, T., Senapathi, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8883-1583, Stanley, D. A., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Stout, J. C., Sutter, L., Tanis, M. F., Tarrant, S., van Kolfschoten, L., Vanbergen, A. J., Vilà, M., von Königslöw, V., Vujic, A., WallisDeVries, M. F., Wen, A., Westphal, C., Wickens, J. B., Wickens, V. J., Wilkinson, N. I., Wood, T. J. and Fijen, T. P. M. (2025) Critical habitat thresholds for effective pollinator conservation in agricultural landscapes. Science, 389 (6767). pp. 1314-1319. ISSN 1095-9203 doi: 10.1126/science.adr2146

Abstract/Summary

Biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes is declining, but evidence-based conservation targets to guide international policies for such landscapes are lacking. We present a framework for informing habitat conservation policies based on the enhancement of habitat quantity and quality and define thresholds of habitat quantity at which it becomes effective to also prioritize habitat quality. We applied this framework to insect pollinators, an important part of agroecosystem biodiversity, by synthesizing 59 studies from 19 countries. Given low habitat quality, hoverflies had the lowest threshold at 6% semi-natural habitat cover, followed by solitary bees (16%), bumble bees (18%), and butterflies (37%). These figures represent minimum habitat thresholds in agricultural landscapes, but when habitat quantity is restricted, marked increases in quality are required to reach similar outcomes.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/124804
Identification Number/DOI	10.1126/science.adr2146
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Sustainable Land Management > Centre for Agri-environmental Research (CAER)
Publisher	American Association for the Advancement of Science
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