title: On-farm habitat restoration counters biotic homogenization in intensively managed agriculture.
abstract: To slow the rate of global species loss, it is imperative to understand how to restore and maintain native biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Currently, agriculture is associated with lower spatial heterogeneity and turnover in community composition (β-diversity). While some techniques are known to enhance α-diversity, it is unclear whether habitat restoration can re-establish β-diversity. Using a long-term pollinator dataset, comprising ∼9,800 specimens collected from the intensively managed agricultural landscape of the Central Valley of California, we show that on-farm habitat restoration in the form of native plant 'hedgerows', when replicated across a landscape, can boost β-diversity by approximately 14% relative to unrestored field margins, to levels similar to some natural communities. Hedgerows restore β-diversity by promoting the assembly of phenotypically diverse communities. Intensively managed agriculture imposes a strong ecological filter that negatively affects several important dimensions of community trait diversity, distribution, and uniqueness. However, by helping to restore phenotypically diverse pollinator communities, small-scale restorations such as hedgerows provide a valuable tool for conserving biodiversity and promoting ecosystem services.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, 130 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Ponisio
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, 130 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.|Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, USA.
authors.forename: Leithen K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: M'Gonigle
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, 130 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kremen
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology; D044822:Biodiversity; D002140:California; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D054817:Pollination
keywords: bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea); community assembly; ecological filter; pollinators; trait diversity; β-diversity