Anthropogenic activities are accelerating the loss of pollinators and the services they provide. Studies have suggested that forests near agricultural farms could serve as pollinator reservoirs. To explore this hypothesis, we examined the relationship between distance to the forest and the number of floral visitors in seven agricultural farms in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in southern India. We used the morphospecies richness of flower visitors as a proxy measure of pollination services provided by forests. We found forty-six flower visitors in total, which included bees, flies, butterflies, moths, earwigs, and beetles. The number of total visitors in farms declined with increasing distance from the forest edge – explaining approximately 63% of the variation in total morphospecies richness – suggesting that natural forests serve as pollinator reservoirs. However, we found no significant relationship between the distance to the forest edge and the species richness of two categories of bees when examined separately, i.e., eusocial and semi-social/solitary bees. We reason that this is because they are likely to inhabit niches that are embedded within the agricultural landscapes. Moreover, we found no relationship between the number of morphospecies and the number of crops at each farm. Since many marginalized farming communities in the region live close to forests and practice pesticide-free, insect-friendly farming, we suggest incentive measures for them. This, in turn, would help conserve forests as pollinator reservoirs, although our findings must be supported by further research.

中文翻译：

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尼尔吉里生物圈保护区农业农场的花卉游客：森林是否充当传粉媒介的水库？

人为活动正在加速传粉媒介及其提供的服务的丧失。研究表明，农业农场附近的森林可以作为传粉媒介的水库。为了探索这一假设，我们研究了印度南部尼尔吉里生物圈保护区的七个农业农场与森林的距离与花卉游客数量之间的关系。我们使用花卉访客的形态物种丰富度作为森林提供的授粉服务的替代措施。我们一共发现了46个花客，包括蜜蜂、苍蝇、蝴蝶、飞蛾、螟虫和甲虫。随着与森林边缘距离的增加，农场的总游客人数下降——解释了大约 63% 的总形态物种丰富度变化——表明天然森林充当传粉媒介的水库。然而，当分别检查时，我们发现到森林边缘的距离与两类蜜蜂的物种丰富度之间没有显着关系，即真社会性和半社会性/独居性蜜蜂。我们认为这是因为它们很可能栖息在嵌入农业景观的生态位中。此外，我们发现每个农场的形态物种数量与作物数量之间没有关系。由于该地区许多被边缘化的农业社区靠近森林并实行无农药、无害虫的农业，我们建议为他们采取激励措施。这，