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Weeds constitute major constraints for farmers by reducing crop yield and quality. However, weeds are managed effectively using herbicides, but this may cause harmful effects on human health and the environment. In an experiment on weed seed predation, we tested the biological control potential of carabid beetles to combat weeds in the absence of herbicides. Seeds from three common weed species we
Insect pollination, despite its potential to contribute substantially to crop production, is not an integrated part of agronomic planning. A major reason for this are knowledge gaps in the contribution of pollinators to yield, which partly result from difficulties in determining area-based estimates of yield effects from insect pollination under field conditions. We have experimentally manipulated
Bumblebee communities and their foraging resources were surveyed in south Swedish agricultural landscapes of contrasting complexity, defined by the size of arable fields and the amount of permanent grazed pastures. After the flowering of oilseed rape (OSR), simplified landscapes contained substantially less herbaceous flower resources and a lower proportion of perennials, compared to complex ones.
Although much attention has focused on the diversity of plant mating systems, only a few studies have considered the joint effects of mating system and sexual conflict in plant evolution. In mixed-mating Collinsia heterophylla, a sexual conflict over timing of stigma receptivity is proposed: pollen with a capacity to induce early onset of stigma receptivity secures paternity for early-arriving pol
Pollination by bees is important for food production. Recent concerns about the declines of both domestic and wild bees, calls for measures to promote wild pollinator populations in farmland. However, to be able to efficiently promote and prioritize between measures that benefit pollinators, such as modified land use, agri-environment schemes, or specific conservation measures, it is important to
A Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst) forest site in southwest Sweden was chosen to study the effects of storm disturbances over the period 1997-2009, during which two storms, 'Lothar' (December 1999) and 'Gudrun' (January 2005), affected the area. Monitored deposition data, soil water chemistry data and forest inventory data were compared with the predictions of an integrated ecosystem model, ForSA
Agricultural intensification is recognised as a major driver of biodiversity loss in human-modified landscapes. Several agro-environmental measures at different spatial scales have been suggested to mitigate the negative impact of intensification on biodiversity and ecosystem services. The effect of these measures on the functional structure of service-providing communities remains, however, large
Resilience of ecological communities to perturbation is important in the face of increased global change from anthropogenic stressors. Monitoring is required to detect the impact of, and recovery from, perturbations, and before-after-control-impact (BACI) analysis provides a powerful framework in this regard. However, species in a community are not observed with perfect detection, and occupancy an
Natural enemies such as predatory arthropods and parasitoids have the potential to suppress pest species and provide the ecosystem service biological control. When predicting the potential of biological control in agriculture it is important to give evidence on how agricultural management influence the abundance and functions of the natural enemies. In this study we examined whether managements pr
We tested how dispersal capacity, host plant specificity and reproductive rate influenced the effects of farming system and landscape composition on butterfly species richness and abundance. In no case did variation in these traits explain species responses to organic farming, indicating that all species benefit equally. In contrast, butterflies with high mobility and reproductive rate were dispro
In order to improve biological control of agricultural pests, it is fundamental to understand which factors influence the composition of natural enemies in agricultural landscapes. In this study, we aimed to understand how agricultural land use affects a number of different traits in ground beetle communities to better predict potential consequences of land-use change for ecosystem functioning. We
Land-use change is a major driver of the global loss of biodiversity, but it is unclear to what extent this also results in a loss of ecological traits. Therefore, a better understanding of how land-use change affects ecological traits is crucial for efforts to sustain functional diversity. To this end we tested whether higher species richness or taxonomic distinctness generally leads to increased
Sexually selected traits are often condition-dependent and are expected to be affected by genome-wide distributed deleterious mutations and inbreeding. However, sexual selection is a powerful selective force that can counteract inbreeding through purging of deleterious mutations. Inbreeding and purging of the inbreeding load for sexually selected traits has rarely been studied across natural popul
Decadal-scale variations in total organic carbon (TOC) concentration in lake water since AD1200 in two small lakes in southern Sweden were reconstructed based on visible-near-infrared spectroscopy (VNIRS) of their recent sediment successions. In order to assess the impacts of local land-use changes, regional variations in sulfur, and nitrogen deposition and climate variations on the inferred chang
The negative effect of agricultural intensification on bumblebee populations is thought to partly be caused by loss of food plants, for example because of increased field size and concomitant loss of non-crop field borders and their nectar and pollen plants. Earlier studies have focused on how loss of foraging resources affects colony growth and thereby abundance of workers and sexual reproduction
Pollinating insects form a key component of European biodiversity, and provide a vital ecosystem service to crops and wild plants. There is growing evidence of declines in both wild and domesticated pollinators, and parallel declines in plants relying upon them. The STEP project (Status and Trends of European Pollinators, 2010-2015, www.step-project.net) is documenting critical elements in the nat
The amounts of carbon allocated to the fungal partner in ectomycorrhizal associations can vary substantially depending on the plant growth and the soil nutrient conditions, and the fungus may frequently be confronted with limitations in carbon. We used chemical analysis and transcriptome profiling to examine the physiological response of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Paxillus involutus to carbon star
Effects of landscape heterogeneity and farming practice on species composition are less well known than those on species richness, in spite of the fact that community composition can be at least as important for ecosystem services, such as pollination. Here, we assessed the effect of organic farming and landscape heterogeneity on pollinator communities, focusing on multivariate patterns in species
Ectomycorrhizal fungi are thought to have a key role in mobilizing organic nitrogen that is trapped in soil organic matter (SOM). However, the extent to which ectomycorrhizal fungi decompose SOM and the mechanism by which they do so remain unclear, considering that they have lost many genes encoding lignocellulose-degrading enzymes that are present in their saprotrophic ancestors. Spectroscopic an
Spatiotemporal resource continuity promotes persistence of mobile animal populations. Current agricultural landscapes are poor in flowers resources for bumble bees. Available forage crops are predominantly early-season mass-flowering crops (MFC). It has been suggested, but not tested, that scarcity of late-season flower resources are limiting bumble bee populations. We examined whether addition of
