Pollinator shortage and global crop yield

Abstract

A pollinator decline caused by environmental degradation might be compromising the production of pollinator-dependent crops. In a recent article, we compared 45 year series (1961-2006) in yield, production and cultivated area of pollinator-dependent and nondependent crop around the world. If pollinator shortage is occurring globally, we expected a lower annual growth rate in yield for pollinator-dependent than nondependent crops, but a higher growth in cultivated area to compensate the lower yield. We have found little evidence for the first "yield" prediction but strong evidence for the second "area" prediction. Here, we present an additional analysis to show that the first and second predictions are both supported for crops that vary in dependency levels from nondependent to moderate dependence (i.e., up to 65% average yield reduction without pollinators). However, those crops for which animal pollination is essential (i.e., 95% average yield reduction without pollinators) showed higher growth in yield and lower expansion in area than expected in a pollination shortage scenario. We propose that pollination management for highly pollinator-dependent crops, such us renting hives or hand pollination, might have compensated for pollinator limitation of yield.

A national survey of managed honey bee 2012–2013 annual colony losses in the USA: results from the Bee Informed Partnership

“…Efficient pollination has already been documented as a limiting factor for some crops at regional or local levels (Klein et al, 2007;Garibaldi et al, 2009). …”

The macroeconomic cost of catastrophic pollinator declines

“…Acute declines in pollinator populations and species diversity have occurred in Europe and North America (Beismeijer et al 2006;NRC 2007;vanEngelsdorp et al 2008;Potts et al 2010), and been linked to pests, diseases, habitat destruction, and agricultural intensification (Cunningham 2000;Kremen et al 2002;Priess et al 2007;Winfree et al 2009;Le Feon et al 2010;vanEngelsdorf and Meixner 2010). Of particular concern is the fact that these trends coincide with agriculture's increasing dependence on pollination services globally (Aizen et al 2008Aizen and Harder 2009;Garibaldi et al 2009), which has fueled fears of a global pollinator crisis (Steffan-Dewenter et al 2005). 1 There has been a flurry of recent effort to quantify the economic benefits of pollination as an ecosystem service, elucidate the implications of pollinator declines for the supply of this service, and assess the economic and broader societal impacts of adverse supply shocks.…”

Synergistic effects of non- Apis bees and honey bees for pollination services

“…When compared with crops that are not pollinator-dependent, those that are moderately pollinator-dependent have shown slower growth in yield and faster expansion in area from 1961 to 2006 [32]. Almond is a mass-flowering, varietally self-incompatible crop species, highly dependent on biotic pollination [4].…”