The Project
In the INTEGRA project, different aspects of the “Integration of habitat structures in agricultural areas for the promotion of pollinator insects (INTEGRA)” are investigated. A main focus is the quantitative modeling of the effect of landscape elements on habitat quality and food availability for pollinator insects. Food resources and nesting opportunities are therefore quantitatively modelled and their spatial effect is mapped in the landscape context. By including a temporal model component, the diversity and quantity of food supply for different pollinator groups is quantified over the year.
The goal of the INTEGRA project is the development of a freely available software tool for spatial planning of habitat characteristics of agricultural systems on a scientific basis. The software tool integrates existing knowledge and newly acquired results from the project on the introduction of trees, shrubs and flowering plants into the agricultural landscape in order to ensure a year-round diverse food supply for typical insect pollinators (honeybees, wild bees, bumblebees, hoverflies and butterflies) as well as to optimize the nesting area. In this intuitive tool, the practitioner can now spatially arrange trees, bushes and flower strips and quantify the effect on insect pollinators with regard to the habitat suitability of the planning area. The range of pollination performance of the insects is spatially modelled, as well as the growth and flowering of trees and bushes over the course of the year and over the years.
In addition, side effects and interactions between trees and bushes and the agricultural crops such as shade, root competition and carbon storage are calculated with ecophysiological models to achieve an optimized arrangement. In the project an intensive exchange of knowledge with practitioners is planned along with a legal classification of the measures, so that the planner can already call up the legal framework and possible support measures in the tool during the planning process.
The INTEGRA project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag from the federal program “Organic Farming and Other Forms of Sustainable Agriculture (BÖLN)”.
Project: „Integration of habitat structures in agricultural areas for the promotion of pollinator insects (INTEGRA)“
Duration: 2021 – 2024
Funding: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL)
Project Management: Federal Office of Agriculture and Food (BLE)
Link: https://service.ble.de/ptdb/index2.php?detail_id=44788441&site_key=141&tKat=6023&zeilenzahl_zaehler=160&NextRow=80