A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production

Dainese, M.; Martin, E. A.; Aizen, M.; Albrecht, M.; Bartomeus, I.; Bommarco, R.; Carvalheiro, L. G.; Chaplin-Kramer, R.; Gagic, V.; Garibaldi, L. A.; Ghazoul, J.; Grab, H.; Jonsson, M.; Karp, D. S.; Kennedy, C. M.; Kleijn, D.; Kremen, C.; Landis, D. A.; Letourneau, D. K.; Marini, L.; Poveda, K.; Rader, R.; Smith, H. G.; Tscharntke, T.; Andersson, G. K. S.; Badenhausser, I.; Baensch, S.; Bezerra, A. D. M.; Bianchi, F. J. J. A.; Boreux, V.; Bretagnolle, V.; Caballero-Lopez, B.; Cavigliasso, P.; Cetkovic, A.; Chacoff, N. P.; Classen, A.; Cusser, S.; Silva e Silva, F. D. d.; de Groot, G. A.; Dude

doi:10.1101/554170

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/554170

A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production

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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 few abundant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 crop systems, we partition the relative importance of abundance and species richness for pollination, biological pest control and final yields in the context of on-going land-use change. Pollinator and enemy richness directly supported ecosystem services independent of abundance. 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.

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Dainese, M., Martin, E. A., Aizen, M., Albrecht, M., Bartomeus, I., Bommarco, R., Carvalheiro, L. G., Chaplin-Kramer, R., Gagic, V., Garibaldi, L. A., Ghazoul, J., Grab, H., Jonsson, M., Karp, D. S., Kennedy, C. M., Kleijn, D., Kremen, C., Landis, D. A., Letourneau, D. K., Marini, L., Poveda, K., Rader, R., Smith, H. G., Tscharntke, T., Andersson, G. K. S., Badenhausser, I., Baensch, S., Bezerra, A. D. M., Bianchi, F. J. J. A., Boreux, V., Bretagnolle, V., Caballero-Lopez, B., Cavigliasso, P., Cetkovic, A., Chacoff, N. P., Classen, A., Cusser, S., Silva e Silva, F. D. d., de Groot, G. A., Dude. 2019-02-20. A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production. https://doi.org/10.1101/554170

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