Abstract
Pollination is a key ecosystem service as many crops but in particular, fruits and vegetables are partially dependent on pollinating insects to produce food for human consumption. Here we assessed how pollination services are delivered at the European scale. We used this assessment to estimate the relative contribution of wild pollinators to crop production. We developed an index of relative pollination potential, which is defined as the relative potential or relative capacity of ecosystems to support crop pollination. The model for relative pollination potential is based on the assumption that different habitats, but in particular forest edges, grasslands rich in flowers and riparian areas, offer suitable sites for wild pollinator insects. Using data of the foraging range of wild bees with short flight distances, we linked relative pollination potential to regional statistics of crop production. At aggregated EU level, the absence of insect pollination would result in a reduction of between 25% and 32% of the total production of crops which are partially dependent on insect pollination, depending on the data source used for the assessment. This production deficit decreases to 2.5% if only the relative pollination potential of a single guild of pollinators is considered. A strength of our approach is the spatially-explicit link between land cover based relative pollination potential and crop yield which enables a general assessment of the benefits that are derived from pollination services in Europe while providing insight where pollination gaps in the landscape occur.
Highlights
Crop pollination by wild insects is an important ecosystem service with high economic value
Several attempts have estimated the global economic value of pollination [4,5,6] and, these estimates are still uncertain since the dependency of crops on insect pollination is not completely understood, these studies make clear that ecosystem services such as crop pollination are fundamental for human well-being
At the European scale the InVEST model was adapted at four essential points: (1) different input data were used to model composite indicators for floral availability and nesting suitability; (2) a specific land parcel system based on the CAPRI (Common Agricultural Policy Regionalized Impact) model [26] was used to estimate the contribution of crops to floral availability and nesting suitability and to estimate the relative benefits derived from pollination; (3) an extra module was computed to estimate the activity of wild bee pollinators and (4) areas where pollinators cannot physically occur were excluded
Summary
Crop pollination by wild insects is an important ecosystem service with high economic value. Several attempts have estimated the global economic value of pollination [4,5,6] and, these estimates are still uncertain since the dependency of crops on insect pollination is not completely understood, these studies make clear that ecosystem services such as crop pollination are fundamental for human well-being. The main drivers of pollinator losses are to be found in habitat loss [11] and agricultural intensification [9,11] Such biased losses of species with particular traits are of concern since they are expected to reduce the resilience of crop pollination services across species, season and space
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