A Decade of Protecting Insect Biodiversity: The Impact of Multifunctional Margins in an Intensive Vegetable System

The intensification of agriculture over the past 80 years has led to significant changes in farm management, resulting in the creation of large-scale fields and the elimination of ecological structural elements. The loss of these areas has dramatically affected natural communities. This study aimed to test whether the implementation of floral margins generates significant differences in insect abundance over time. The study was carried out on an intensive vegetable farm in Spain over a ten-year period (2013-2022) where a floral margin was sown and maintained over the years. The results showed a clear linear increase in insect individuals, with a total increase of 403.33% from 2013 to 2022. The number of species increased by 138.80% overall, with most growth occurring in the first three years before stabilising (0.63% increase from 2016 to 2022). The analysis of community structure demonstrates a gradual evolution in the insect population dynamics aligned significantly with both log-series and log-normal distributions (p-value > 0.05). This long-term study demonstrates that floral margins are an essential tool for fostering insect biodiversity in intensive agricultural areas. The steady, rather than abrupt, shift in the ecosystem suggests that sustained implementation of floral margins can effectively prevent or reverse insect decline over time.