Flower Strips as an Ecological Tool to Strengthen the Environmental Balance of Fields: Case Study of a National Park Zone in Western Poland

Małgorzata Antkowiak, Jolanta Kowalska () and Paweł Trzciński
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Małgorzata Antkowiak: Department of Organic Agriculture and Environmental Protection, Institute of Plant Protection—National Research Institute, Władysława Węgorka 20, 60-318 Poznań, Poland
Jolanta Kowalska: Department of Organic Agriculture and Environmental Protection, Institute of Plant Protection—National Research Institute, Władysława Węgorka 20, 60-318 Poznań, Poland
Paweł Trzciński: Department of Monitoring and Signalling of Agrophages, Institute of Plant Protection—National Research Institute, Władysława Węgorka 20, 60-318 Poznań, Poland

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: Maintaining biodiversity in agrocenoses is becoming an important element of sustainable development strategies. Flower strips can perform various functions, and their use in the agricultural landscape is a form of a natural mechanism for regulating the agricultural habitat and improving the effectiveness of biological methods of combating crop pests. This manuscript is a case study in Wielkopolska National Park, a valuable wildlife area situated in a temperate zone characteristic of the climate conditions of western Poland. The purpose of this study was to analyze the species composition of plants in a flower strip two years after sowing a mixture of seeds of perennial plants, and to determine the diversity of the collected arthropods depending on the flowering intensity of plants in the strip. The most intense flowering period in the flower strip occurred in June, when the number of flowering plants was the highest and belonged to one species, Trifolium repens (81.52% of all flowering plants). In the same month, the largest share of beneficial arthropods were specimens from Hymenoptera/Parasitica (29.15%), which may indicate their preference for T. repens . The share of beneficial arthropods in relation to all caught arthropods was higher in June (58.74%) than in July (35.16%), with Hymenoptera predominating, represented mainly by Parasitica, which may indicate their preference for species from the genus Trifolium.

Keywords: beneficial arthropods; diversity of harmful insects; flowering plant species; sustainable agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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