Data from: Negative effects of pesticides on wild bee communities can be buffered by landscape context

Wild bee communities provide underappreciated but critical agricultural
pollination services. Given predicted global shortages in pollination
services, managing agroecosystems to support thriving wild bee communities
is, therefore, central to ensuring sustainable food production. Benefits
of natural (including semi-natural) habitat for wild bee abundance and
diversity on farms are well documented. By contrast, few studies have
examined toxicity of pesticides on wild bees, let alone effects of
farm-level pesticide exposure on entire bee communities. Whether
beneficial natural areas could mediate effects of harmful pesticides on
wild bees is also unknown. Here, we assess the effect of conventional
pesticide use on the wild bee community visiting apple (Malus domestica)
within a gradient of percentage natural area in the landscape. Wild bee
community abundance and species richness decreased linearly with
increasing pesticide use in orchards one year after application; however,
pesticide effects on wild bees were buffered by increasing proportion of
natural habitat in the surrounding landscape. A significant contribution
of fungicides to observed pesticide effects suggests deleterious
properties of a class of pesticides that was, until recently, considered
benign to bees. Our results demonstrate extended benefits of natural areas
for wild pollinators and highlight the importance of considering the
landscape context when weighing up the costs of pest management on crop
pollination services.