Global agricultural productivity is threatened by increasing pollinator dependence without a parallel increase in crop diversification

• Autores: Aizen, Marcelo A.; Aguiar, Diego Sebastián; Biesmeijer, Jacobus C.; Garibaldi, Lucas Alejandro; Inouye, David W.; Jung, Chuleui; Martins, Dino J.; Medel, Rodrigo; Morales, Carolina L.; Ngo, Hien; Pauw, Anton; Paxton, Robert J.; Sáez, Agustín; Seymour, Colleen L.
• Año de publicación: 2019
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: Agricultural Expansion; Biodiversity; Crop Diversity; Pollination; Pollination Services; Pollinator‐Dependent Crops
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de Río Negro

Fil: Aizen, Marcelo A. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina.
Fil: Aizen, Marcelo A. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnica. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina.
Fil: Aguiar, Sebastián. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; Argentina.
Fil: Biesmeijer, Jacobus C. Naturalis Biodiversity Center; Países Bajos.
Fil: Biesmeijer, Jacobus C. Leiden University. Center for Environmental Sciences; Países Bajos.
Fil: Garibaldi, Lucas Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural; Argentina.
Fil: Garibaldi, Lucas Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural; Argentina.
Fil: Inouye, David W. University of Maryland. Department of Biology; Estados Unidos.
Fil: Inouye, David W. Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory; Estados Unidos.
Fil: Jung, Chuleui. Andong National University. Department of Plant Medicals; Corea del Sur.
Fil: Martins, Dino J. Princeton University. Mpala Research Centre and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Estados Unidos.
Fil: Medel, Rodrigo. Universidad de Chile. Facultad de Ciencias. Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas; Chile.
Fil: Morales, Carolina L. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina.
Fil: Morales, Carolina L. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnica. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina.
Fil: Ngo, Hien. Intergovernmental Science‐Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services; Alemania.
Fil: Pauw, Anton. Stellenbosch University. Department of Botany and Zoology; Sudáfrica.
Fil: Paxton, Robert J. Martin Luther University Halle‐Wittenberg. Institute for Biology. General Zoology; Alemania.
Fil: Paxton, Robert J. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; Alemania.
Fil: Sáez, Agustín. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina.
Fil: Sáez, Agustín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnica. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina.
Fil: Seymour, Colleen L. South African National Biodiversity Institute. Kirstenbosch Research Centre; Sudáfrica.
Fil: Seymour, Colleen L. University of Cape Town. FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology. DST‐NRF Centre of Excellence; Sudáfrica.
The global increase in the proportion of land cultivated with pollinator‐dependent crops implies increased reliance on pollination services. Yet agricultural practices themselves can profoundly affect pollinator supply and pollination. Extensive monocultures are associated with a limited pollinator supply and reduced pollination, whereas agricultural diversification can enhance both. Therefore, areas where agricultural diversity has increased, or at least been maintained, may better sustain high and more stable productivity of pollinator‐dependent crops. Given that >80% of all crops depend, to varying extents, on insect pollination, a global increase in agricultural pollinator dependence over recent decades might have led to a concomitant increase in agricultural diversification. We evaluated whether an increase in the area of pollinator‐dependent crops has indeed been associated with an increase in agricultural diversity, measured here as crop diversity, at the global, regional, and country scales for the period 1961–2016. Globally, results show a relatively weak and decelerating rise in agricultural diversity over time that was largely decoupled from the strong and continually increasing trend in agricultural dependency on pollinators. At regional and country levels, there was no consistent relationship between temporal changes in pollinator dependence and crop diversification. Instead, our results show heterogeneous responses in which increasing pollinator dependence for some countries and regions has been associated with either an increase or a decrease in agricultural diversity. Particularly worrisome is a rapid expansion of pollinator‐dependent oilseed crops in several countries of the Americas and Asia that has resulted in a decrease in agricultural diversity. In these regions, reliance on pollinators is increasing, yet agricultural practices that undermine pollination services are expanding. Our analysis has thereby identified world regions of particular concern where environmentally damaging practices associated with large‐scale, industrial agriculture threaten key ecosystem services that underlie productivity, in addition to other benefits provided by biodiversity.