Bumblebees benefit from faba bean cultivation

The researchers recorded wild bees in various German agricultural landscapes for the study. In one half of the landscapes, conventionally farmed faba beans were cultivated; in the other half there were no bean fields. "The nectar of the faba bean is hidden deep in the flowers and is only easily accessible to larger bees with long tongues, such as bumblebees. We therefore wanted to investigate how groups of wild bees, which differ in their external appearance, react to the cultivation of faba beans and whether they can benefit from it," says first author Nicole Beyer from the Functional Agrobiodiversity Group at the University of Göttingen. The study results show that there were more than twice as many bumblebees in the faba bean landscapes than in the landscapes without beans. In contrast, the cultivation of beans did not affect other wild bees. However, these other wild bees benefited from a high proportion of semi-natural habitats.

"Our research clearly showed that certain bee species can be supported by similar measures in farmed areas. But the benefits depend strongly on the characteristics of the crop and pollinator. In order to encourage the widest possible range of species, we propose a combination of measures: the cultivation of various flowering arable crops such as faba beans and the promotion or preservation of semi-natural habitats with a diverse range of flowers and nesting sites for many other wild bees," concludes Professor Catrin Westphal, Head of Functional Agrobiodiversity at the University of Göttingen.