Short project description

Bees are an important and diverse group of pollinating insects, providing important pollination services for insect pollinated crops as well as many wild plants. However, pollinators are declining historically. This decline is driven by multiple factors, many relating to agricultural intensification. Mitigation measures include biodiversity friendly farm management actions. In the transdisciplinary project Organic+, organic farmers and researchers have worked together to improve conditions for biodiversity in five case regions. In this MSc study, the student will investigate the influence of landscape composition and configuration and habitat quality on abundance and diversity of wild bees in the five case regions. The project will generate knowledge about the value of farm management actions and local landscape features for wild bees, which can be used to guide farmers toward more biodiversity friendly farm management practices.