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Non-bee insects are important contributors to global crop pollination.

Rader, Romina ; Bartomeus, Ignasi ; Garibaldi, Lucas A ; Garratt, Michael P D ; Howlett, Brad G ; Winfree, Rachael ; Cunningham, Saul A ; Mayfield, Margaret M ; Arthur, Anthony D and Andersson, Georg K.S. LU orcid , et al. (2016) In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(1). p.146-151
Abstract
Wild and managed bees are well documented as effective pollinators of global crops of economic importance. However, the contributions by pollinators other than bees have been little explored despite their potential to contribute to crop production and stability in the face of environmental change. Non-bee pollinators include flies, beetles, moths, butterflies, wasps, ants, birds, and bats, among others. Here we focus on non-bee insects and synthesize 39 field studies from five continents that directly measured the crop pollination services provided by non-bees, honey bees, and other bees to compare the relative contributions of these taxa. Non-bees performed 25-50% of the total number of flower visits. Although non-bees were less effective... (More)
Wild and managed bees are well documented as effective pollinators of global crops of economic importance. However, the contributions by pollinators other than bees have been little explored despite their potential to contribute to crop production and stability in the face of environmental change. Non-bee pollinators include flies, beetles, moths, butterflies, wasps, ants, birds, and bats, among others. Here we focus on non-bee insects and synthesize 39 field studies from five continents that directly measured the crop pollination services provided by non-bees, honey bees, and other bees to compare the relative contributions of these taxa. Non-bees performed 25-50% of the total number of flower visits. Although non-bees were less effective pollinators than bees per flower visit, they made more visits; thus these two factors compensated for each other, resulting in pollination services rendered by non-bees that were similar to those provided by bees. In the subset of studies that measured fruit set, fruit set increased with non-bee insect visits independently of bee visitation rates, indicating that non-bee insects provide a unique benefit that is not provided by bees. We also show that non-bee insects are not as reliant as bees on the presence of remnant natural or seminatural habitat in the surrounding landscape. These results strongly suggest that non-bee insect pollinators play a significant role in global crop production and respond differently than bees to landscape structure, probably making their crop pollination services more robust to changes in land use. Non-bee insects provide a valuable service and provide potential insurance against bee population declines. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
volume
113
issue
1
pages
146 - 151
publisher
National Academy of Sciences
external identifiers
  • pmid:26621730
  • wos:000367520400047
  • scopus:84953340661
  • pmid:26621730
ISSN
1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1517092112
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f2ab7330-f4da-4316-abcd-86e41f0af853 (old id 8505961)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:41:54
date last changed
2022-10-25 18:56:00
@article{f2ab7330-f4da-4316-abcd-86e41f0af853,
  abstract     = {{Wild and managed bees are well documented as effective pollinators of global crops of economic importance. However, the contributions by pollinators other than bees have been little explored despite their potential to contribute to crop production and stability in the face of environmental change. Non-bee pollinators include flies, beetles, moths, butterflies, wasps, ants, birds, and bats, among others. Here we focus on non-bee insects and synthesize 39 field studies from five continents that directly measured the crop pollination services provided by non-bees, honey bees, and other bees to compare the relative contributions of these taxa. Non-bees performed 25-50% of the total number of flower visits. Although non-bees were less effective pollinators than bees per flower visit, they made more visits; thus these two factors compensated for each other, resulting in pollination services rendered by non-bees that were similar to those provided by bees. In the subset of studies that measured fruit set, fruit set increased with non-bee insect visits independently of bee visitation rates, indicating that non-bee insects provide a unique benefit that is not provided by bees. We also show that non-bee insects are not as reliant as bees on the presence of remnant natural or seminatural habitat in the surrounding landscape. These results strongly suggest that non-bee insect pollinators play a significant role in global crop production and respond differently than bees to landscape structure, probably making their crop pollination services more robust to changes in land use. Non-bee insects provide a valuable service and provide potential insurance against bee population declines.}},
  author       = {{Rader, Romina and Bartomeus, Ignasi and Garibaldi, Lucas A and Garratt, Michael P D and Howlett, Brad G and Winfree, Rachael and Cunningham, Saul A and Mayfield, Margaret M and Arthur, Anthony D and Andersson, Georg K.S. and Bommarco, Riccardo and Brittain, Claire and Carvalheiro, Luísa G and Chacoff, Natacha P and Entling, Martin H and Foully, Benjamin and Freitas, Breno M and Gemmill-Herren, Barbara and Ghazoul, Jaboury and Griffin, Sean R and Gross, Caroline L and Herbertsson, Lina and Herzog, Felix and Hipólito, Juliana and Jaggar, Sue and Jauker, Frank and Klein, Alexandra-Maria and Kleijn, David and Krishnan, Smitha and Lemos, Camila Q and Lindström, Sandra A M and Mandelik, Yael and Monteiro, Victor M and Nelson, Warrick and Nilsson, Lovisa and Pattemore, David E and de O Pereira, Natália and Pisanty, Gideon and Potts, Simon G and Reemer, Menno and Rundlöf, Maj and Sheffield, Cory S and Scheper, Jeroen and Schüepp, Christof and Smith, Henrik and Stanley, Dara A and Stout, Jane C and Szentgyörgyi, Hajnalka and Taki, Hisatomo and Vergara, Carlos H and Viana, Blandina F and Woyciechowski, Michal}},
  issn         = {{1091-6490}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{146--151}},
  publisher    = {{National Academy of Sciences}},
  series       = {{Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}},
  title        = {{Non-bee insects are important contributors to global crop pollination.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517092112}},
  doi          = {{10.1073/pnas.1517092112}},
  volume       = {{113}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}