Article Addendum: Pollinator shortage and global crop yield: Looking at the whole spectrum of pollinator dependency
Date
2009
Authors
Garibaldi, Lucas A.
Aizen, Marcelo A.
Cunningham, Saul
Klein, Alexandra M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Landes Bioscience
Abstract
There is evidence that pollinators are declining as a result of local and global environmental degradation 1, 2, 3 and 4. Because a sizable proportion of the human diet depends directly or indirectly on animal pollination [5], the issue of how decreases in pollinator stocks could affect global crop production is of paramount importance 6, 7 and 8. Using the extensive FAO data set [9], we compared 45 year series (1961–2006) in yield, and total production and cultivated area of pollinator-dependent and nondependent crops [5]. We investigated temporal trends separately for the developed and developing world because differences in agricultural intensification, and socioeconomic and environmental conditions might affect yield and pollinators 10, 11, 12 and 13. Since 1961, crop yield (Mt/ha) has increased consistently at average annual growth rates of ∼1.5%. Temporal trends were similar between pollinator-dependent and nondependent crops in both the developed and developing world, thus not supporting the view that pollinator shortages are affecting crop yield at the global scale. We further report, however, that agriculture has become more pollinator dependent because of a disproportionate increase in the area cultivated with pollinator-dependent crops. If the trend toward favoring cultivation of pollinator-dependent crops continues, the need for the service provided by declining pollinators will greatly increase in the near future.
Description
Keywords
agricultural production, developed world, developing world, ecosystem services, environmental degradation, FAO, pollination crisis
Citation
Collections
Source
Communicative & Integrative Biology
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
License Rights
Restricted until
2037-12-31