A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production

DAINESE, MATTEO; MARTIN, EMILY A.; AIZEN, MARCELO A.; ALBRECHT, MATTHIAS; BARTOMEUS, IGNASI; BOMMARCO, RICCARDO; CARVALHEIRO, LUISA G.; CHAPLIN-KRAMER, REBECCA; GAGIC, VESNA; GARIBALDI, LUCAS A.; GHAZOUL, JABOURY; GRAB, HEATHER; JONSSON, MATTIAS; KARP, DANIEL S.; KENNEDY, CHRISTINA M.; KLEIJN, DAVID; KREMEN, CLAIRE; LANDIS, DOUGLAS A.; LETOURNEAU, DEBORAH K.; MARINI, LORENZO; POVEDA, KATJA; RADER, ROMINA; SMITH, HENRIK G.; TSCHARNTKE, TEJA; ANDERSSON, GEORG K.S.; BADENHAUSSER, ISABELLE; BAENSCH, SVENJA; BEZERRA, ANTONIO DIEGO M.; BIANCHI, FELIX J.J.A.; BOREUX, VIRGINIE; BRETAGNOLLE, VINCENT; CABALLERO-LOPEZ, BERTA; CAVIGLIASSO, PABLO; ?ETKOVI?, ALEKSANDAR; CHACOFF, NATACHA P.; CLASSEN, ALICE; CUSSER, SARAH; DA SILVA E SILVA, FELIPE D.; ARJEN DE GROOT, G.; DUDENHÖFFER, JAN H.; EKROOS, JOHAN; FIJEN, THIJS; FRANCK, PIERRE; FREITAS, BRENO M.; GARRATT, MICHAEL P.D.; GRATTON, CLAUDIO; HIPÓLITO, JULIANA; HOLZSCHUH, ANDREA; HUNT, LAUREN; IVERSON, AARON L.; JHA, SHALENE; KEASAR, TAMAR; KIM, TANIA N.; KISHINEVSKY, MIRI

Science Advances

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Año: 2019 vol. 5

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.