A in high spirits variety of blossom plants increase the raising success of wild bee and may help redress for the minus force of insecticides . This is what researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Hohenheim , as well as the Julius Kühn Institute , have found in a tumid - scale experimental study . The results have been print in the scientific journal Ecology Letters .
In their experimentation , the researchers investigated how successfully the wild bee Osmia bicornis ( red mason bee ) reproduced . scarlet Alfred Edward Woodley Mason bee are important for both ecological and economical reason . The wild bee were experimentally kept in more than 50 large enclosure cages with peak mixtures of varying wild industrial plant multifariousness and insecticide - care for oilseed rape . later , the reproductive success of the wild bees , as measured by the number of their brood cells and egress offspring , was investigated over several months .
The research team find that the number of cell that the wild bees created for their offspring where metal money - rich flowering potpourri were usable was double that of wild bees where only oilseed ravishment was useable . The reproductive success of the gaga bees , which have to supply their offspring with pollen and nectar , increased both in cages with a large diverseness of flowering plants and where there were particularly important plant life species . In contrast , if oilseed rape treated with clothianidin ( from the neonicotinoid form of insecticides ) , was available to the bee , this had a negative effect on their reproductive achiever . However , this disconfirming effect of the insect powder only occurred in cages with oil-rich seed rape monocultures , which suggests that such burden can be mitigate by alternative food for thought resources from species - copious flowering mixtures .
The study shows that both the diversity of flower plants and exposure to insecticides importantly influence the reproductive success of hazardous bees , and shows that a eminent multifariousness of flowering plant could even up for the minus effects of insecticides . " One possible explanation is that bee larvae benefit from additional nutrients , and are exposed to few insecticides , when the pollen of other industrial plant species besides oilseed rape is available to them , " explain Felix Klaus , first writer of the study and PhD educatee in the Agroecology Group at Göttingen University . " Our results emphasise the of import role of mintage - rich resourcefulness of flowers for raving mad bees , " adds Professor Ingo Grass , headspring of the Department of Ecology of Tropical Agricultural Systems at the University of Hohenheim . " If sufficiently diverse flower are available in the farming landscape , this could counteract the electronegative effects of monocultures and insecticides , " says Professor Teja Tscharntke , Head of the Agroecology Group at Göttingen University .
Read the complete inquiry at www.sciencedaily.com .
University of Göttingen . " Flower diversity may extenuate insecticide effects on waste bees : Research team led by the University of Göttingen emphasizes the benefit of diversifying blossom resources . " ScienceDaily . ScienceDaily , 20 February 2025 .
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