Insect Pollinated Crops, Insect Pollinators and US Agriculture: Trend Analysis of Aggregate Data for the Period 1992–2009

By N. Calderone. PLoS ONE, 2012

688 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In the US, the cultivated area (hectares) and production (tonnes) of crops that require or benefit from insect pollination (directly dependent crops: apples, almonds, blueberries, cucurbits, etc.) increased from 1992, the first year in this study, through 1999 and continued near those levels through 2009; aggregate yield (tonnes/hectare) remained unchanged. The value of directly dependent crops attributed to all insect pollination (2009 USD) decreased from $14.29 billion in 1996, the first year for value data in this study, to $10.69 billion in 2001, but increased thereafter, reaching $15.12 billion by 2009. The values attributed to honey bees and non-Apis pollinators followed similar patterns, reaching $11.68 billion and $3.44 billion, respectively, by 2009. The cultivated area of crops grown from seeds resulting from insect pollination (indirectly dependent crops: legume hays, carrots, onions, etc.) was stable from 1992 through 1999, but has since declined. Production of those crops also declined, albeit not as rapidly as the decline in cultivated area; this asymmetry was due to increases in aggregate yield. The value of indirectly dependent crops attributed to insect pollination declined from $15.45 billion in 1996 to $12.00 billion in 2004, but has since trended upward. The value of indirectly dependent crops attributed to honey bees and non-Apis pollinators, exclusive of alfalfa leafcutter bees, has declined since 1996 to $5.39 billion and $1.15 billion, respectively in 2009. The value of alfalfa hay attributed to alfalfa leafcutter bees ranged between $4.99 and $7.04 billion. Trend analysis demonstrates that US producers have a continued and significant need for insect pollinators and that a diminution in managed or wild pollinator populations could seriously threaten the continued production of insect pollinated crops and crops grown from seeds resulting from insect pollination.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/23dd37b1d0a8a654e48b963e1c15e51bba503c27

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

1. S. Leonhardt
2. T. Breeze
3. L. Garibaldi
4. F. Drummond
5. L. Stack
6. Aaron K. Hoshide
7. A. C. Dibble
8. E. Venturini

In Insect Science

1. S. Leonhardt
2. Alexandra-Maria Klein
3. T. Breeze
4. L. Garibaldi
5. B. Viana
6. N. Hanley
7. C. Ellis
8. Dave Goulson

Citations in the corpus

• Flavonoids: Classification, Biosynthesis and Chemical Ecology (2017, background): “Pollination can result from the action of abiotic forces such as wind and water, but 80% of the Angiosperms rely on animals, including bats, flies, butterflies, beetles and other insects [52].”
• Understanding the Effects of Sublethal Pesticide Exposure on Honey Bees: A Role for Probiotics as Mediators of Environmental Stress (2020, background): “In the United States, the value of bee-mediated pollination is even larger (Calderone, 2012).”
• Pollination reservoirs for wild bee habitat enhancement in cropping systems: a review (2017, background): “As pollination fees continue to rise (Calderone 2012; Rucker, Thurman, and Burgett 2012), scientists are increasingly calling into question the wisdom of relying on a single species to pollinate our crops (Goulson 2003; Klein et al. 2007; Potts et al. 2010).”
• Pollination ecosystem services: A comprehensive review of economic values, research funding and policy actions (2020, methodology): “Although the dependence of pollinators was at some level previously considered by authors, this improved standard procedure has been widely applied in many case studies (Basu et al. 2011; Calderone 2012; Giannini et al. 2015b; Lautenbach et al., 2012).”
• Effects of neonicotinoids and fipronil on non-target invertebrates (2014, neutral): “This species contributed US$5.26 billion to the value of alfalfa hay in 2009 (Calderone 2012).”
• Measuring the economic value of pollination services: principles, evidence and knowledge gaps. (2015, background): “The majority of studies into the economic value of pollination services have been purely illustrative and have been used to raise awareness of the impact of pollination services on regional or national agriculture (e.g.: Jai-Dong and Chen, 2011; Calderone, 2012).”
• A national survey of managed honey bee 2014–2015 annual colony losses in the USA (2015, neutral): “Honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony losses remain at levels substantially higher than rates which beekeepers identify as acceptable, raising concerns about possible future crop pollination shortfalls (Calderone, 2012).”
• Economic gain, stability of pollination and bee diversity decrease from southern to northern Europe (2013, background): “This decline is likely to continue, while, at the same time, the area of pollinatordependent crop production is increasing (Aizen, Garibaldi, Cunningham, & Klein 2008; Calderone 2012).”