A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production

Matteo Dainese, Emily A. Martin, Marcelo A. Aizen, Matthias Albrecht, Ignasi Bartomeus, Riccardo Bommarco, Luisa G. Carvalheiro, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Vesna Gagic, Lucas A. Garibaldi, Jaboury Ghazoul, Heather Grab, Mattias Jonsson, Daniel S. Karp, Christina M. Kennedy, David Kleijn, Claire Kremen, Douglas A. Landis, Deborah K. Letourneau, Lorenzo MariniKatja Poveda, Romina Rader, Henrik G. Smith, Teja Tscharntke, Georg K.S. Andersson, Isabelle Badenhausser, Svenja Baensch, Antonio Diego M. Bezerra, Felix J.J.A. Bianchi, Virginie Boreux, Vincent Bretagnolle, Berta Caballero-Lopez, Pablo Cavigliasso, Aleksandar Ćetković, Natacha P. Chacoff, Alice Classen, Sarah Cusser, Felipe D. Da Silva E Silva, G. Arjen De Groot, Jan H. Dudenhöffer, Johan Ekroos, Thijs Fijen, Pierre Franck, Breno M. Freitas, Michael P.D. Garratt, Claudio Gratton, Juliana Hipólito, Andrea Holzschuh, Lauren Hunt, Aaron L. Iverson, Shalene Jha, Tamar Keasar, Tania N. Kim, Miriam Kishinevsky, Björn K. Klatt, Alexandra Maria Klein, Kristin M. Krewenka, Smitha Krishnan, Ashley E. Larsen, Claire Lavigne, Heidi Liere, Bea Maas, Rachel E. Mallinger, Eliana Martinez Pachon, Alejandra Martínez-Salinas, Timothy D. Meehan, Matthew G.E. Mitchell, Gonzalo A.R. Molina, Maike Nesper, Lovisa Nilsson, Megan E. O'Rourke, Marcell K. Peters, Milan Plećaš, Simon G. Potts, Davi de L. Ramos, Jay A. Rosenheim, Maj Rundlöf, Adrien Rusch, Agustín Sáez, Jeroen Scheper, Matthias Schleuning, Julia M. Schmack, Amber R. Sciligo, Colleen Seymour, Dara A. Stanley, Rebecca Stewart, Jane C. Stout, Louis Sutter, Mayura B. Takada, Hisatomo Taki, Giovanni Tamburini, Matthias Tschumi, Blandina F. Viana, Catrin Westphal, Bryony K. Willcox, Stephen D. Wratten, Akira Yoshioka, Carlos Zaragoza-Trello, Wei Zhang, Yi Zou, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

523 Scopus citations

Abstract

Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield-related ecosystem services can be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance of species richness, abundance, and dominance for pollination; biological pest control; and final yields in the context of ongoing land-use change. Pollinator and enemy richness directly supported ecosystem services in addition to and independent of abundance and dominance. Up to 50% of the negative effects of landscape simplification on ecosystem services was due to richness losses of service-providing organisms, with negative consequences for crop yields. Maintaining the biodiversity of ecosystem service providers is therefore vital to sustain the flow of key agroecosystem benefits to society.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbereaax0121
JournalScience Advances
Volume5
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 16 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

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