| The area of semi-natural grasslands, which is the main habitat for a large number of plant species, has decreased much during the past decade. A possible alternative habitat is road-verges, which is now the largest moved grassland area in Sweden. There is however indications that these might not provide an optimal pollination environment, especially not in intensively farmed landscapes. If road verges offer too few flowering resources and/or suitable sites for nest-building to sustain viable pollinator populations, they will be dependent on influx of pollinators form other landscape elements. The aim of this project is to investigate if landscape variables affect pollination service to road verge plants. The variables that will be included in the study are: abundance of semi-natural grasslands, abundance of arable fields with flowering and non-flowering crops, abundance of spring flowering Salix caprea, and abundance of gardens. Twenty independent landscape sectors with a radius of 800 m will be selected and the variables will be monitored from maps and in the field at the 100, 200, 400, and 800 m radius. In the centre of each landscape a station with flowering individuals of Armeria maritima spp maritima and Lotus corniculatus will be placed. These species are self-incompatible and plants have been raised from common genetic stocks to avoid genetic effects on seed production. Visitation of pollinators to the pots as well as seed production will be monitored. The abundance of flowers within a 5 m radius around the station will be inventoried, since the immediate floral neighbourhood can influence pollination success. To control for possible confounding effects, supplemental pollinations will be performed. The rationale for this is that if a correlation between seed set and a landscape variable is found for natural pollinated individuals but not for the ones receiving pollen supplementation this supports that the cause of the correlation is driven by pollen limitation and not other factors. This study will run over one year. Combining landscape ecology with pollination studies requires labour intensive field-work and is dependent on co-operation by landowners and the public. Still it has the potential to provide us with knowledge how to mitigate negative effects of intensive agricultural farming on pollination interactions. If certain road verges provide a better pollination environment, due to characteristics of the surrounding landscape, then management efforts should be directed to those in order to maximize positive effects on road verge plant populations. |