Landscape and Local Drivers Affecting Flying Insects along Fennel Crops (Foeniculum vulgare, Apiaceae) and Implications for Its Yield

Lucie Schurr (1) , Benoit Geslin (1) , Laurence Affre (1) , Sophie Gachet (1) , Marion Delobeau , Magdalena Brugger , Sarah Bourdon , Veronique Masotti (1)

1 IMBE - Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d'écologie marine et continentale

In a globally strained context where food production constantly challenges biodiversity, the importance of insect activity to crop pollination is at stake, as insects are essential to more than 75% of global crops. Despite this awareness, there is still a gap of knowledge about the importance of pollinators for aromatic crops. Fennel is an aromatic plant cultivated in the South of France for its essential oil, which is of great economic interest. Here, we explored the effect of the abundance and richness of insects caught at the edge of fennel crops on the yield of essential oil. We found that high insect richness improves fennel essential oil yield. In this context, it appeared important to know what structured the insect communities we trapped. By calculating indices describing the landscape, we have shown that rather than the type of habitat surrounding them, it is the arrangement of habitats that affected the abundance and richness of insects. As these results, confirmed the importance of maintaining complex landscapes to sustain both flower-visiting insect populations and crop yield, they will be of interest to fennel producers.

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie

Lucie Schurr, Benoit Geslin, Laurence Affre, Sophie Gachet, Marion Delobeau, et al.. Landscape and Local Drivers Affecting Flying Insects along Fennel Crops (Foeniculum vulgare, Apiaceae) and Implications for Its Yield. Insects, 2021, 12 (5), pp.404. ⟨10.3390/insects12050404⟩. ⟨hal-03214196⟩