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Sheep Grazing Poses Bigger Threat to Scotland's Wild Pollinators Than Honey Bees
Key Takeaways
- A University of Bristol-led study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology compared grazing, muirburn and commercial honey bee apiaries across 20 Scottish moorland sites.
- Spring sheep grazing was linked to 63% less spring nectar for emerging bumblebees than ungrazed plots.
- Introduced honey bee hives caused only a small change to plant-pollinator network structure and no measurable effect on the quantity or quality of pollen bumblebees collected.
- Fieldwork covered May to September and recorded over 1.6 million flowers and more than 5,000 plant-pollinator interactions across 58 plant species and 405 pollinator species.
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DT Editorial Team··via phys.org