Global relationships between crop yield and pollinator abundance
Vezzani, Liam ; Schipper, Aafke M. ; Thuiller, Wilfried ; Verburg, Peter H. ; Smith, Henrik G. LU
and Marques, Alexandra
(2025)
In Journal of Applied Ecology
62(6).
p.1498-1508
- Abstract
Pollinators are estimated to benefit the reproduction of three-quarters of global leading crop species and contribute to 3%–8% of the total global food production. Ongoing declines in pollinator populations have raised concerns about repercussions for food security. Thus, there is a need to better understand how agricultural yields depend on pollinator abundance. Here, we established yield–pollinator relationships for 24 crops, capitalizing on a recently published global database with paired records of crop yield and pollinator abundance. We used linear mixed-effects modelling to relate relative yields to total pollinator abundance, accounting for differences in climate and farming practices. Overall, we found a positive relationship... (More)
Pollinators are estimated to benefit the reproduction of three-quarters of global leading crop species and contribute to 3%–8% of the total global food production. Ongoing declines in pollinator populations have raised concerns about repercussions for food security. Thus, there is a need to better understand how agricultural yields depend on pollinator abundance. Here, we established yield–pollinator relationships for 24 crops, capitalizing on a recently published global database with paired records of crop yield and pollinator abundance. We used linear mixed-effects modelling to relate relative yields to total pollinator abundance, accounting for differences in climate and farming practices. Overall, we found a positive relationship between crop yield and pollinator abundance, which was modified by management practice and climate zone. At a given pollinator abundance, yields were significantly higher for conventional than for organic farms, while yields in temperate regions were significantly higher than those in tropical regions. In addition, we found a positive relationship between relative yield and pollinator abundance for 21 out of the 24 crop species, indicating that variability in pollinator numbers across agricultural fields has consequences for crop pollination. Synthesis and applications. Our global and context-specific yield–pollinator relationships, based on the best available data to date, represent a key step towards quantitative models for assessing the degree of pollination sufficiency worldwide. We believe that this will increase the robustness of pollination model outputs and better inform the transition towards pollinator-friendly agricultural practices.
(Less)
- author
- Vezzani, Liam
; Schipper, Aafke M.
; Thuiller, Wilfried
; Verburg, Peter H.
; Smith, Henrik G.
LU
and Marques, Alexandra
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- agriculture, pollination, pollination dependency, pollinator-dependent crops, yield
- in
- Journal of Applied Ecology
- volume
- 62
- issue
- 6
- pages
- 11 pages
- publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Inc.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105001850184
- ISSN
- 0021-8901
- DOI
- 10.1111/1365-2664.70042
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 44b6fe45-3b7d-43f0-8382-7ecd32a41f46
- date added to LUP
- 2025-09-01 14:13:11
- date last changed
- 2025-09-01 14:14:30
@article{44b6fe45-3b7d-43f0-8382-7ecd32a41f46,
abstract = {{<p>Pollinators are estimated to benefit the reproduction of three-quarters of global leading crop species and contribute to 3%–8% of the total global food production. Ongoing declines in pollinator populations have raised concerns about repercussions for food security. Thus, there is a need to better understand how agricultural yields depend on pollinator abundance. Here, we established yield–pollinator relationships for 24 crops, capitalizing on a recently published global database with paired records of crop yield and pollinator abundance. We used linear mixed-effects modelling to relate relative yields to total pollinator abundance, accounting for differences in climate and farming practices. Overall, we found a positive relationship between crop yield and pollinator abundance, which was modified by management practice and climate zone. At a given pollinator abundance, yields were significantly higher for conventional than for organic farms, while yields in temperate regions were significantly higher than those in tropical regions. In addition, we found a positive relationship between relative yield and pollinator abundance for 21 out of the 24 crop species, indicating that variability in pollinator numbers across agricultural fields has consequences for crop pollination. Synthesis and applications. Our global and context-specific yield–pollinator relationships, based on the best available data to date, represent a key step towards quantitative models for assessing the degree of pollination sufficiency worldwide. We believe that this will increase the robustness of pollination model outputs and better inform the transition towards pollinator-friendly agricultural practices.</p>}},
author = {{Vezzani, Liam and Schipper, Aafke M. and Thuiller, Wilfried and Verburg, Peter H. and Smith, Henrik G. and Marques, Alexandra}},
issn = {{0021-8901}},
keywords = {{agriculture; pollination; pollination dependency; pollinator-dependent crops; yield}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{6}},
pages = {{1498--1508}},
publisher = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
series = {{Journal of Applied Ecology}},
title = {{Global relationships between crop yield and pollinator abundance}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70042}},
doi = {{10.1111/1365-2664.70042}},
volume = {{62}},
year = {{2025}},
}