Argentine Beekeepers' Magazine

(Espacio Apícola, October 14th, 2021) A new review that includes the analysis of data from more than 2,500 sites reveals that global warming, resulting from greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation and land use change in favor of agriculture is causing the reduction of pollinators and consequently puts regional production at risk, representing a risk to human well-being.

Under the title: "Key tropical crops at risk from pollinator loss due to climate change and land use" Joseph Millard, from the Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum and the Center for Biodiversity and Environment Resarch, from the University College, both in London, along with other researchers from those institutions and others from the United Kingdom, Brazil and Portugal, published this research article on ecology in Science Advences last Thursday.

The graph that illustrates this note was taken from the aforementioned publication, shows how pollinators decrease depending on the advance of agriculture.

Key tropical crops at risk from pollinator loss due to climate change and land use
ABSTRACT
Insect pollinator biodiversity is changing rapidly, with potential consequences for the provision of crop pollination. However, the role of land use–climate interactions in pollinator biodiversity changes, as well as consequent economic effects via changes in crop pollination, remains poorly understood. We present a global assessment of the interactive effects of climate change and land use on pollinator abundance and richness and predictions of the risk to crop pollination from the inferred changes. Using a dataset containing 2673 sites and 3080 insect pollinator species, we show that the interactive combination of agriculture and climate change is associated with large reductions in insect pollinators. As a result, it is expected that the tropics will experience the greatest risk to crop production from pollinator losses. Localized risk is highest and predicted to increase most rapidly, in regions of sub-Saharan Africa, northern South America, and Southeast Asia. Via pollinator loss alone, climate change and agricultural land use could be a risk to human well-being.

Free access article published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science HERE