Pollinator decline has attracted global attention and substantial efforts are underway to respond through national pollinator strategies and action plans. These policy responses require clarity on what is driving pollinator decline and what risks it generates for society in different parts of the world. Using a formal expert elicitation process, we evaluated the relative regional and global importance of eight drivers of pollinator decline and ten consequent risks to human well-being. Our results indicate that global policy responses should focus on reducing pressure from changes in land cover and configuration, land management and pesticides, as these were considered very important drivers in most regions. We quantify how the importance of drivers and risks from pollinator decline, differ among regions. For example, losing access to managed pollinators was considered a serious risk only for people in North America, whereas yield instability in pollinator-dependent crops was classed as a serious or high risk in four regions but only a moderate risk in Europe and North America. Overall, perceived risks were substantially higher in the Global South. Despite extensive research on pollinator decline, our analysis reveals considerable scientific uncertainty about what this means for human society.

Summary1. This review assesses current knowledge about the interplay between landscape and pollinator communities. Our primary aim is to provide an evidence base, identify key gaps in knowledge and highlight initiatives that will help develop and improve strategies for pollinator conservation. 2. Human-dominated landscapes (such as arable land and urban environments) can have detrimental impacts on pollinator communities but these negative effects can be ameliorated by proximity to semi-natural habitat and habitat corridors. There is also evidence to suggest that increased landscape heterogeneity and landscape configuration can play an important role in the maintenance of diverse pollinator communities. 3. Landscape characteristics have direct impacts on pollinator communities, but can also influence abundance and richness through interaction with other drivers such as changing climate or increased chemical inputs in land management. 4. The majority of existing literature focuses on specific hymenopteran groups, but there is a lack of information on the impact of landscape changes on non-bee taxa. Research is also needed on the effectiveness of management interventions for pollinators and multiple year observations are required for both urban and rural initiatives. 5. Current policies and monitoring schemes could contribute data that will plug gaps in knowledge, thus enabling greater understanding of relationships between landscapes and pollinator populations. This would in turn help design mitigation and adaptation strategies for pollinator conservation.

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The benefits of hedgerows for pollinators and natural enemies depends on hedge quality and landscape context. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 247. pp. 363370.

Change in land cover is thought to be one of the key drivers of pollinator declines, and yet there is a dearth of studies exploring the relationships between historical changes in land cover and shifts in pollinator communities. Here, we explore, for the first time, land cover changes in England over more than 80 years, and relate them to concurrent shifts in bee and wasp species richness and community composition. Using historical data from 14 sites across four counties, we quantify the key land cover changes within and around these sites and estimate the changes in richness and composition of pollinators. Land cover changes within sites, as well as changes within a 1 km radius outside the sites, have significant effects on richness and composition of bee and wasp species, with changes in edge habitats between major land classes also having a key influence. Our results highlight not just the land cover changes that may be detrimental to pollinator communities, but also provide an insight into how increases in habitat diversity may benefit species diversity, and could thus help inform policy and practice for future land management.