Flower‐rich and diverse road verges support pollinators, but traffic speed limits the ecological benefits across Europe
Chris Wyver, Andrijana Andrić, Carolin Biegerl, Sofia Blomqvist, Christophe Dominik, Noah Feldmann, William Fiordaliso, Mike Garratt, Andrea Holzschuh, Hanna Honchar, Reet Karise, Maja Knežević, Hanno Korten, Sarah Lescot, Egle Liiskmann, John MacArthur, Marika Mänd, Denis Michez, Erik Öckinger, Oliver Schweiger, Tea Skendžić, Henrik G. Smith, Ingolf Steffan‐Dewenter, Louise Truslove, Sanja Veselić, Dušanka Vujanović, Deepa Senapathi, Simon G. PottsAbstract
Roads are vital for human societies, yet they can also have negative impacts on the ecological communities that live in close proximity to them. Insect pollinators, which nest and forage in road verges running alongside roads, are a group of particular importance. These verges may act as an “ecological trap,” drawing insect pollinators into contact with traffic, increasing the risk of pollinator‐traffic collisions. Spanning six European regions, we evaluated the complex relationships between traffic, road verge floral composition, and surrounding land use to understand how these factors influence abundance and richness of bees, butterflies, and hoverflies sampled within road verges. Across the study, we observed 10,960 pollinators belonging to 293 species of bees, butterflies, and hoverflies. We observed greater pollinator abundance in verges with higher flower cover, and greater pollinator richness in verges with more species of flowering plants. Lower abundances of bees and butterflies and lower species richness of bees were observed when traffic speed in the adjacent road was higher. This study indicates that road verges with abundant and diverse floral resources support more abundant and diverse pollinator populations, especially on verges alongside lower speed roads. We recommend that lower speed roads should be prioritized for floral enhancements.