Influence of environmental factors on insect pollinators in Northern Serbia

One of the major consequences of anthropogenic influence is the evident decrease in the diversity and number of insect pollinators. Being highly vulnerable ecosystem service, mainly due to agricultural intensification, the spread of diseases and parasites, and pesticide pollution, loss of pollinator diversity may lead to loss of other species that directly or indirectly rely on them and could have significant economic impacts by reducing crop pollination services. In this study, we examined the relationship between environmental variables (altitude, distance from the nearest agricultural area, grazing intensity, and mowing) on the composition and abundance of pollinator species. Pollinators were sampled on the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in the Republic of Serbia, on four types of habitats categorised according to the CORINE land cover classification as classes 2.1.1 Non-irrigated arable land, 2.4.3 Land principally occupied by agriculture, with significant areas of natural vegetation, 3.1.1 Broad-leaved forest and 3.2.1 Natural grassland. Our results showed a significant correlation between the composition of pollinator species and the overall set of environmental factors. We found that forest, followed by grassland habitats, had the most diverse pollinator communities. Localities under grazing and mowing appeared to be less diverse in pollinators, whereby agricultural areas had the lowest pollinator diversity. Our findings suggest that the diversity of pollinators is highly influenced by land use and confirm the importance of forest habitats in agricultural landscapes such as Vojvodina Authonomous Province in Serbia as important refuge habitats for foraging
and nesting of pollinators.