University of Reading, UK.

The School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, (www.reading.ac.uk) achieved the top rating of 5 in the most recent UK Research Assessment Exercise, reflecting the high international standard of its work. The broad based composition of the school facilitates multidisciplinary research, and in particular the ability to integrate natural, social and management sciences within a single research activity. The Centre for Agri-Environmental Research (CAER) specialises in high quality scientific research focusing on the impacts of agricultural land use on species, habitats and ecosystems, and on the development of practical measures and policies to predict and ameliorate these impacts. Other relevant activities include refining the use of insects as indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem health, and designing species and habitat assessment techniques to complement existing monitoring frameworks. CAER staff have been actively involved with species and habitat conservation in the UK and globally, through projects with national governments, Research Councils, EU, FAO, and IUCN. This has brought CAER staff into close contact, nationally and internationally, with conservation practitioners and policy makers.

Simon G. Potts (Ph.D.) is a Senior Research Fellow with an active research group (24 projects, 10 PhD students, in 22 countries), which are assessing the responses of biodiversity and ecosystem services to global change. Recent work, including FP6 IP ALARM and SSA COCONUT, is addressing the current and future risks to biodiversity in Europe and aims to quantify the current status, and future trends, of pollinators and pollination services in Europe and worldwide. Other activities include: Chairman of the Pollination Working Group of International Commission of Plant-Bee Relationships; Head of European Pollinator Initiative; advisor to the CBD International Pollinator Initiative, EEA and GBIF; IUCN steering committee for the Task Force on Declining Pollinator Services; contributing author to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and US National Academy of Sciences report ‘Status of pollinators in North America’.

Stuart Roberts is a research Fellow at CAER and is responsible for the data mining activities within the pollination module of ALARM and for collating existing species distribution and ecological data for European pollinators. He is the focal point for Europe for the GBIF Global Pollinator Information Campaign. He has 20 years experience in surveying aculeates and is a steering committee member of the UK Bumblebee Working Group, Hymettus (UK Aculeate Conservation Group) and Chairman of the UK Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society. He is also linked to several amateur insect recording networks around Europe.

Biesmeijer JC, Roberts SPM, Reemer M, Ohlemüller R, Edwards M, Peeters T, Schaffers AP, Potts SG, Kleukers R, Thomas CD, Settele J, Kunin WE (2006) Parallel Declines in Pollinators and Insect-Pollinated Plants in Britain and the Netherlands. Science 313: 351-354

Potts S.G., Petanidou T., Roberts S., O’Toole C., Hulbert A., & Willmer P.G. (2006). Plant-pollinator biodiversity and pollination services in a complex Mediterranean landscape. Biological Conservation 129: 519-529

Steffan-Dewenter I., Potts S.G. & Packer L. (2005) Pollinator diversity and crop pollination services are at risk. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20: 651-652

Potts S.G., Bradbury R.B., Mortimer S. & Woodcock B.W. (2006) Commentary on: Mixed biodiversity benefits of agri-environment schemes in five European countries. Ecology Letters 9: 254-256

Kremen C., Williams N.M., Aizen M.A., Gemmill-Herren B., Lebuhn G., Minckley R., Packer L., Potts S. G., Roulston T., Steffan-Dewenter I., Vazquez D., Winfree, L. Adams, E. E. Crone, S. S. Greenleaf, T. H. Keitt, A. Klein, J. Regetz R., Ricketts T. (2007) Pollination and other ecosystem services produced by mobile organisms: a conceptual framework for the effects of land use change. Ecology Letters 10: 219-314

Woodcock B.A., Potts S.G., Ramsay A.J., Tscheulin T., Parkinson A., Smith R.E.N., Martyn T.M., Pilgrim E., Gundry A., Brown V.K. & Tallowin J.R. (2006) The potential of grass field margin management for enhancing beetle diversity in intensive livestock farms. Journal of Applied Ecology 44: 60-69

Potts S.G., Kevan P.G. & Boone J.W. (2005) Conservation in Pollination: collecting, surveying and monitoring. In: Practical Pollination Biology (eds. Dafni A., Kevan P. & Husband C.). pp 401-434, Enviroquest, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

Ahmad F., Banne S., Castro M., Chavarria G., Clarke J., Collette L., Eardley C., Fonseca V., Freitas B.M., French C., Gemmill B., Griswold T., Gross C., Kwapong P., Lundall-Magnuson E., Medellin R., Partap U., Potts S.G., Roth D., Ruggiero M., Urban R. & Willemse G. (2006) Pollinators and Pollination: A resource book for policy and practice . African Pollinator Initiative, South Africa