[font face=Times, Times New Roman, Serif]Public release date: 23-Feb-2012

Contact: Tracey Jewitt
press.office@bbsrc.ac.uk
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

[font size=5]Farm 'weeds' have crucial role in sustainable agriculture[/font]

[font size=3]Plants often regarded as common weeds such as thistles, buttercups and clover could be critical in safe guarding fragile food webs on UK farms according to Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

Published tomorrow in Science, researchers from the University of Bristol detail the interactions that occur between the different food webs commonly found on farms throughout the UK and the robustness of these interactions to species loss. In one of the first studies to look simultaneously at multiple types of food webs, the researchers found that some plants such as thistles, cow-parsley, clover and buttercups were disproportionately well linked to animals through the food web.

The research also showed that bees, butterflies and other pollinators are more susceptible to changes in their environment making them more fragile than other networks. This research highlights the importance of ensuring an agri-ecosystem approach is taken in land management practice to enhance biodiversity on UK farmland.

Professor Jane Memmott, from the University of Bristol, who led the study, explains: "If ecologists, land managers and policy makers want to manage farmland diversity, they need to understand the way species are linked to each other, since these links can have a huge impact on a community's response to species loss, species restoration and the provision of ecosystem services such as pollination and pest control."

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