application/pdf 2391735 bytes info:eu-repo/semantics/conferenceProceedings agricultural landscape, ecosystem services, flower strips 2025 https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:8399 cobiss:177872649 ISBN: 978-86-80417-99-8 Ugrenović, Vladan Filipović, Vladimir Plećaš, Milan Matić, Marko Prekop, Nenad Lazović, Vojislav Šeremešić, Srđan Book of abstracts: 4th International and 16th National Congress of the Serbian Society of Soil Science: “The Soil Re-Union: Science for Healthy Soils” 20-23 October 2025, Fruške terme, Vrdnik, Serbia startpage: 160 endpage: 161 eng Abstract: Modern agricultural landscapes are highly complex multifunctional systems. They are not only used for food and energy production, but are also expected to provide various ecosystem services within the agroecosystems. Industrial agriculture, which is practised on large areas, has led to increased productivity, but due to its high intensity, it is also responsible for numerous environmental problems. The loss and fragmentation of natural habitats, along with the widespread use of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers have led to a loss of biodiversity. In recent years, there has been a dramatic decline in the abundance and diversity of all groups of wild insect pollinators, including wild bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths, with many pollinator species being threatened with extinction (COM 2018, 395). In addition, agricultural intensification has led to soil degradation, which can be regarded as a loss of a non-renewable resource, particularly through the depletion of soil organic carbon (FAO and ITPS, 2015). The introduction of flower strips into agricultural landscapes on small areas (1%), can contribute to the creation of new habitats that support existing wild pollinators and promote increases in their abundance and diversity at both local and landscape scales. The results of the EcoStack project recommend six species for flower mixtures in Serbia: Centaurea cyanus, Coriandrum sativum, Cynara scolymus, Daucus carota, Phacelia tanacetifolia and Sinapis alba. This practice has also been shown to benefit other beneficial organisms, such as predatory insects, pest parasitoids, birds, and plants – leading to greater species richness and abundance. Such an approach can enhance biodiversity and overall ecosystem functioning, including crop pollination, suppression of pests and invasive weed populations, improved soil fertility through erosion control, and climate change mitigation via carbon sequestration in soils by conserving both below- and above-ground biomass. In this context, flower strips should be regarded as a key element of agricultural landscapes within sustainable farming systems such as conservative, organic, regenerative, and biodynamic agriculture. Flower strips – a new element of agricultural landscapes All rights reserved