Application of wildflower strips for agricultural landscaping

Wildflower strips in the agricultural landscape are constructed in strip or matrix forms as buffers on headlands, orchards, vegetable fields, etc. by means of mixture sowing. By combining different functional plants into communities, the wildflower strips provide nectar and pollen resources as well as habitats for natural enemies and pollinators. They also contribute in improving the quality of habitats; strengthen the support system for natural enemies; and provide different ecosystem services, such as improving pollination rates, reducing pesticide use, improving and restoring farmland soil, purifying water sources, and inhibiting weeds. The application and development of wildflower strips in Central and Western Europe and the United States were reviewed in this study. Wildflower strips originated in Switzerland but were first applied with the intention of ecological conservation in agricultural settings in Belgium. Over time, the ecological compensation mechanism improved in these countries. In United Kingdom, wildflower strip application occured with strong, detailed policy support involving the use of a variety of methods. However, in the United States, the promotion of native plants, grassland habitat restoration, and the conservation of key pollinators were emphasized. In China, the lack of landscape heterogeneity and habitat fragmentation was mainly caused by the invasion of exotic species and human intervention. The introduction of these methods of wildflower strip implementation as a means for habitat management and planning was crucial. The study on wildflower strip usage in China was still in the early stages of development and was not yet to be practically applied at larger scales. In the future, wildflower strip implementation would be initiated with simultaneous dynamic monitoring and investigation of plant community interactions along with various insect communities in existing non-crop habitats. These investigations will provide the data necessary to construct ecological networks after delimitation of ecological protection areas on a large scale. In addition, these studies will facilitate decision-making on suitable vegetation structures to combine natural and semi-natural habitats based on spatial and temporal dynamics of arthropod functional groups.