CropPol: A dynamic, open and global database on crop pollination

Abstract

Seventy five percent of fruit production of the major global crops benefit from insect pollination. Hence, there has been increased interest in how global change drivers impact this critical ecosystem service. Because standardized data on crop pollination are rarely available, we are limited in our capacity to understand the variation in pollination benefits to crop yield, as well as to anticipate changes in this service, develop predictions, and inform management actions. Here, we present CropPol, a dynamic, open and global database on crop pollination. It contains measurements recorded from 189 crop studies, covering 3,216 field observations, 2,421 yield measurements (i.e. berry weight, number of fruits and kg per hectare, among others), and 46,262 insect records from 49 commercial crops distributed around the globe. CropPol comprises 32 of the 87 leading global crops and commodities that are pollinator dependent. Malus domestica is the most represented crop (25 studies), followed by Brassica napus (22 studies), Vaccinium corymbosum (13 studies), and Citrullus lanatus (12 studies). The most abundant pollinator guilds recorded are honey bees (33.12% counts), bumblebees (18.65%), flies other than Syrphidae and Bombyliidae (13.76%), other wild bees (13.51%), beetles (11.47%), Syrphidae (4.86%), and Bombyliidae (0.06%). Locations comprise 32 countries distributed among European (70 studies), Northern America (59), Latin America and the Caribbean (27), Asia (22), Oceania (10), and Africa (7). Sampling spans three decades and is concentrated on 2001-05 (21 studies), 2006-10 (38), 2011-15 (87), 2016-20 (40). This is the most comprehensive open global data set on measurements of crop flower visitors, crop pollinators and pollination to date and we encourage researchers to add more datasets to this database in the future. No copyright restrictions are associated with the use of this dataset. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications and cite individual studies when appropriate.

Sexual dimorphism in excess power index of four North American native bees (Hymenoptera, Andrenidae, Apidae, and Halictidae)

“…In North America, it is estimated that there are 4,000 different species of native bees (Michener 2007). Native bees are important pollinators for a multitude of crops (Allen-Perkins et al 2022) and non-crop plants alike (Ollerton et al 2011). However, native bees have been in decline due to numerous anthropogenic activities (Cameron et al 2011;Abbate et al 2019).…”

Diurnal and geographic variations of pollinator importance for Cucurbita maxima Duchesne

“…In this context, Allen-Perkins et al (2022) successfully developed a worldwide crop pollination database covering 48 commercial crop species from 34 countries. However, East Asia was limited to two crop species (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench and Brassica napus L.) of Japan and China in this database (Allen-Perkins et al, 2022), implying a scarcity of studies in East Asia. This is despite East Asia being recognized as one of the highest pollinator dependent areas for crop production (Lautenbach et al, 2012).…”

Synthesis of highbush blueberry pollination research reveals region‐specific differences in the contributions of honeybees and wild bees

“…Multiple managed and wild insect species visit crop flowers and facilitate fruit and seed production (Allen- Perkins et al, 2022). Global meta-analyses show that pollination of many crops increases with increasing flower visitation by wild pollinators such as bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies (Dainese et al, 2019;Garibaldi et al, 2013).…”