Orchard meadows are landscape elements worth preserving and are also very important as refuge habitats for beneficial insects. Many of these beneficial insects are also important for keeping our crops healthy, e.g. the counterparts of aphids on sugar beet. The CitizenScience project nützLINK aims to monitor population developments of these beneficial insects with the help of citizen scientists. To this end, various actions are being carried out, with which, for example, overwintering pests and beneficial insects can be recorded on fruit trees in meadow orchards, or now - in summer - flower visitors such as hoverflies can be observed and counted in a "flower show" (action field "meadow orchard"). In the "Sugar beet" field of action, farmers from the Braunschweig area can receive specific training to learn more about pests and beneficial insects in their fields using simple recording methods.

On the website https://nuetzlink.julius-kuehn.de/, interested parties can obtain information on the fields of action and the target beneficial organisms, as well as make contacts to join in the monitoring. The data collected through "nützLINK" is compiled by the Julius Kühn Institute and is included in the nationwide monitoring of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes (MonViA).

The "nützLINK" team would like to express its sincere thanks for the commitment of all the volunteers who have already taken part!