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Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(6), 2015

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8414

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Delivery of crop pollination services is an insufficient argument for wild pollinator conservation

Journal article published in 2015 by Pé ter Batáry, David Kleijn, Rachael Winfree, Ricketts Th, Williams Nm, Ignasi Bartomeus, Luísa G. Carvalheiro, Ascher Js, Mickaël Henry, R. Rufus Isaacs, Biesmeijer Jc, Rufus Isaacs, Blitzer Ej, Alexandra-Maria Klein, Claire Kremen and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractThere is compelling evidence that more diverse ecosystems deliver greater benefits to people, and these ecosystem services have become a key argument for biodiversity conservation. However, it is unclear how much biodiversity is needed to deliver ecosystem services in a cost-effective way. Here we show that, while the contribution of wild bees to crop production is significant, service delivery is restricted to a limited subset of all known bee species. Across crops, years and biogeographical regions, crop-visiting wild bee communities are dominated by a small number of common species, and threatened species are rarely observed on crops. Dominant crop pollinators persist under agricultural expansion and many are easily enhanced by simple conservation measures, suggesting that cost-effective management strategies to promote crop pollination should target a different set of species than management strategies to promote threatened bees. Conserving the biological diversity of bees therefore requires more than just ecosystem-service-based arguments.