Long-term global trends in crop yield and production reveal no current pollination shortage but increasing pollinator dependency

• Autores: Aizen, Marcelo A.; Garibaldi, Lucas Alejandro; Cunningham, Saul A.; Klein, Alexandra M.
• Año de publicación: 2008
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: Long-Term Global Trends; Pollination; long history of human
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de Río Negro

Fil: Aizen, Marcelo A. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche. Laboratorio Ecotono; Argentina.
Fil: Garibaldi, Lucas Alejandro. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche. Laboratorio Ecotono; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina.
Fil: Cunningham, Saul A. CSIRO Entomology; Australia.
Fil: Klein, Alexandra M. University of California; USA.
Fil: Klein, Alexandra M. University of Goettingen; Alemania.
Fil: Aizen, Marcelo A. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente (INIBIOMA); Argentina.
Fil: Aizen, Marcelo A. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET); Argentina.
Fil: Garibaldi, Lucas Alejandro. Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina.
There is evidence that pollinators are declining as a result of local and global environmental degradation 1, 2, 3, 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, 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, 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.