Dataset Information

Cephalaria transsylvanica-based flower strips as potential food source for bees during dry periods in European Mediterranean basin countries.

ABSTRACT: The introduction of sown wildflower strips favours the establishment of pollinator communities, with special reference to social Apoidea. Here, we evaluated the late summer flowering Cephalaria transsylvanica as suitable species for strips providing food for pollinators in paucity periods. C. transsylvanica showed no particular requirements in terms of seed germination and growth during summer. This plant had an excellent potential of self-seeding and competitiveness towards weed competitors. C. transsylvanica prevented from entomophilous pollination showed inbreeding depression, with a decrease in seed-set and accumulation of seed energy reserves. However, C. transsylvanica did not appear to be vulnerable in terms of pollination biology since it had a wide range of pollinators including bees, hoverflies and Lepidoptera. C. transsylvanica was visited mainly by honeybees and bumblebees and these latter pollinators increased their visits on C. transsylvanica flowers during early autumn. This plant may be useful as an abundant source of pollen during food paucity periods, such as autumn. We proposed C. transsylvanica for incorporation into flower strips to be planted in non-cropped farmlands in intensively managed agricultural areas as well as in proximity of beehives. The latter option may facilitate the honeybees collecting pollen and nectar for the colony, thereby ensuring robustness to overcome the winter season.

SUBMITTER: Benelli G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3968061 | biostudies-other | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Cephalaria transsylvanica-based flower strips as potential food source for bees during dry periods in European Mediterranean basin countries.

Benelli Giovanni G Benvenuti Stefano S Desneux Nicolas N Canale Angelo A

PloS one 20140327 3

The introduction of sown wildflower strips favours the establishment of pollinator communities, with special reference to social Apoidea. Here, we evaluated the late summer flowering Cephalaria transsylvanica as suitable species for strips providing food for pollinators in paucity periods. C. transsylvanica showed no particular requirements in terms of seed germination and growth during summer. This plant had an excellent potential of self-seeding and competitiveness towards weed competitors. C. ...[more]

PMID: 24676345

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Project description:Flower strips are grown to an increasing degree in order to enhance the ecological value of agricultural landscapes. Depending on their profitable life span and the crop sequence, the strips' biomass must be mulched after flowering to enable repeated tillage. A promising alternative is the use of the flower strips' biomass as a co-substrate for biomethanisation - thereby contributing to the climate-friendly generation of energy. This potential bioenergy substrate occurs only seasonally and is commonly produced only in limited quantities at a farm scale. To realize the additional benefit of flower strips as energy suppliers, stock piling of the strips' biomass is required. However, information about the ensilability of flower strip biomass is still rare. We conducted a 2-year study to analyze the ensilability of pure biomass from effloresced flower strips and mixtures of flower strip biomass with 33 and 67% whole crop maize, respectively. Ensiling took place in 3 l model silos at laboratory scale after chopping the substrate. Before ensiling several chemical characteristics of the biomass stock were determined to assess the substrate's biochemical ensilability potential (dry matter content, water-soluble carbohydrates, buffering capacity, nitrate content). The process-engineered ensiling success after 90 days was determined based on fermentation patterns. The ensilability potential of the pure flower strip substrates reached modest levels (fermentability coefficients according to Weißbach vary around the threshold of 45). Nevertheless, acceptable silage qualities were achieved under the laboratory conditions (pH ranging from 4.2 to 4.7). Compared to pure flower strip biomass, the addition of maize noticeably improved both the substrate's biochemical ensilability potential and the quality of real fermented silage. We conclude that a mixture of 33% biomass from flower strips with 67% whole crop maize can be regarded as a recommendable ratio if proper ensiling technology is applied.

Dataset Information

Cephalaria transsylvanica-based flower strips as potential food source for bees during dry periods in European Mediterranean basin countries.

Publications

Cephalaria transsylvanica-based flower strips as potential food source for bees during dry periods in European Mediterranean basin countries.

Similar Datasets

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