Pollinators et al.

Conserving biodiversity is a major 21st-century challenge (EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030). To achieve this purpose, it is essential to be focused also on urban areas that on one hand can be a threat to pollinators but on the other hand can support pollinators. However, to conserve pollinators, it is not sufficient to increase green spaces if they are not connected to each other. Thus, it is essential the ecological connection among urban green areas to avoid isolated populations that contribute to species inbreeding and decrease.

This project aims to understand communities and mobility of pollinators and pollination within urban areas across Europe, as crucial factors to maintain green and ecologically sustainable cities. Specifically, it aims to understand which landscape and local environmental variables affect communities and the mobility of wild pollinators (butterflies, bees, and hoverflies) along road verges in urban areas and how green area connectivity influence pollination services. Indeed, the ultimate goal of the project is to define optimal management actions that would enhance pollinator mobility and pollination across Europe.

The project will be divided into 5 different tasks, four research tasks (A-D) and one outreach task (E):

1. Investigating pollinator communities along road verges;

2. Evaluating mobility of pollinators along road verges, in collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU, Sweden);

3. Estimating pollen transport, in collaboration with the University of Milan Bicocca (UniMIB, Italy);

4. Estimating pollination along a gradient of connectivity within urban areas, through exclusion experiment and using pollinator video and acoustic recordings in collaboration with the University of Turin (UniTO, Italy).

5. Outreach activities (media coverage, activities with citizens along road verges, public events and a final document for policymakers).

This research is part of the project No. 2022/47/P/NZ8/01208  co-funded by the National Science Centre and the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 945339.