Solar parks: Refuges for pollinators and boosting pollination services

Solar parks represent a rapidly growing land use change and can affect the local environment and biodiversity. Opportunities to incorporate biodiversity benefits into the expansion of solar are increasingly being recognised, for example, solar parks could support insect pollinators. However, understanding of pollinator response to solar park developments is currently limited and empirical data are lacking. To address this knowledge gap, we used a combination of field- and desk-based methods to explore the impacts of on-site floral resources and surrounding landscape characteristics on solar park pollinator biodiversity. We walked pollinator transects and surveyed vegetation at 15 solar parks in England. We also used a landcover map and a GIS to investigate the high quality habitat and woody linear features within 500 m and 1 km of the solar park boundaries. Pollinator biodiversity varied between the solar parks, explained by a combination of on-site floral resources and surrounding landscape characteristics. Diversity and abundance were generally higher with higher floral diversity, greater floral cover and taller vegetation. Conversely, pollinator diversity was generally lower when solar parks were surrounded by more high quality habitat and a greater density of woody linear features. Our findings suggest that local and landscape scale factors affect pollinator biodiversity within solar parks. Maximising floral resources through appropriate management actions may be the most effective way to support pollinators, especially within solar parks located in resource-poor, disconnected landscapes. By hosting pollinator habitat, solar parks could become refuges for pollinators and help to incorporate biodiversity benefits into the energy transition.