Dataset Information

Wild insect diversity increases inter-annual stability in global crop pollinator communities.

ABSTRACT: While an increasing number of studies indicate that the range, diversity and abundance of many wild pollinators has declined, the global area of pollinator-dependent crops has significantly increased over the last few decades. Crop pollination studies to date have mainly focused on either identifying different guilds pollinating various crops, or on factors driving spatial changes and turnover observed in these communities. The mechanisms driving temporal stability for ecosystem functioning and services, however, remain poorly understood. Our study quantifies temporal variability observed in crop pollinators in 21 different crops across multiple years at a global scale. Using data from 43 studies from six continents, we show that (i) higher pollinator diversity confers greater inter-annual stability in pollinator communities, (ii) temporal variation observed in pollinator abundance is primarily driven by the three-most dominant species, and (iii) crops in tropical regions demonstrate higher inter-annual variability in pollinator species richness than crops in temperate regions. We highlight the importance of recognizing wild pollinator diversity in agricultural landscapes to stabilize pollinator persistence across years to protect both biodiversity and crop pollination services. Short-term agricultural management practices aimed at dominant species for stabilizing pollination services need to be considered alongside longer term conservation goals focussed on maintaining and facilitating biodiversity to confer ecological stability.

SUBMITTER: Senapathi D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8059553 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Wild insect diversity increases inter-annual stability in global crop pollinator communities.

Senapathi Deepa D Fründ Jochen J Albrecht Matthias M Garratt Michael P D MPD Kleijn David D Pickles Brian J BJ Potts Simon G SG An Jiandong J Andersson Georg K S GKS Bänsch Svenja S Basu Parthiba P Benjamin Faye F Bezerra Antonio Diego M ADM Bhattacharya Ritam R Biesmeijer Jacobus C JC Blaauw Brett B Blitzer Eleanor J EJ Brittain Claire A CA Carvalheiro Luísa G LG Cariveau Daniel P DP Chakraborty Pushan P Chatterjee Arnob A Chatterjee Soumik S Cusser Sarah S Danforth Bryan N BN Degani Erika E Freitas Breno M BM Garibaldi Lucas A LA Geslin Benoit B de Groot G Arjen GA Harrison Tina T Howlett Brad B Isaacs Rufus R Jha Shalene S Klatt Björn Kristian BK Krewenka Kristin K Leigh Samuel S Lindström Sandra A M SAM Mandelik Yael Y McKerchar Megan M Park Mia M Pisanty Gideon G Rader Romina R Reemer Menno M Rundlöf Maj M Smith Barbara B Smith Henrik G HG Silva Patrícia Nunes PN Steffan-Dewenter Ingolf I Tscharntke Teja T Webber Sean S Westbury Duncan B DB Westphal Catrin C Wickens Jennifer B JB Wickens Victoria J VJ Winfree Rachael R Zhang Hong H Klein Alexandra-Maria AM

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20210317 1947

While an increasing number of studies indicate that the range, diversity and abundance of many wild pollinators has declined, the global area of pollinator-dependent crops has significantly increased over the last few decades. Crop pollination studies to date have mainly focused on either identifying different guilds pollinating various crops, or on factors driving spatial changes and turnover observed in these communities. The mechanisms driving temporal stability for ecosystem functioning and ...[more]

PMID: 33726596

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Project description:Agricultural intensification is a leading threat to bird conservation. Highly diversified farming systems that integrate livestock and crop production might promote a diversity of habitats useful to native birds foraging across otherwise-simplified landscapes. At the same time, these features might be attractive to nonnative birds linked to a broad range of disservices to both crop and livestock production. We evaluated the influence of crop-livestock integration on wild bird richness and density along a north-south transect spanning the U.S. West Coast. We surveyed birds on 52 farms that grew primarily mixed vegetables and fruits alone or integrated livestock into production. Crop-livestock systems harbored higher native bird density and richness relative to crop-only farms, a benefit more pronounced on farms embedded in nonnatural landscapes. Crop-livestock systems bolstered native insectivores linked to the suppression of agricultural pest insects but did not bolster native granivores that may be more likely to damage crops. Crop-livestock systems also significantly increased the density of nonnative birds, primarily European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) that may compete with native birds for resources. Models supported a small, positive correlation between nonnative density and overall native bird density as well as between nonnative density and native granivore density. Relative to crop-only farms, on average, crop-livestock systems exhibited 1.5 times higher patch richness, 2.4 times higher density of farm structures, 7.3 times smaller field sizes, 2.4 times greater integration of woody crops, and 5.3 times greater integration of pasture/hay habitat on farm. Wild birds may have responded to this habitat diversity and/or associated food resources. Individual farm factors had significantly lower predictive power than farming system alone (change in C statistic information criterion (ΔCIC) = 80.2), suggesting crop-livestock systems may impact wild birds through a suite of factors that change with system conversion. Collectively, our findings suggest that farms that integrate livestock and crop production can attract robust native bird communities, especially within landscapes devoted to intensified food production. However, additional work is needed to demonstrate persistent farm bird communities through time, ecophysiological benefits to birds foraging on these farms, and net effects of both native and nonnative wild birds in agroecosystems.

Dataset Information

Wild insect diversity increases inter-annual stability in global crop pollinator communities.

Publications

Wild insect diversity increases inter-annual stability in global crop pollinator communities.

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