Global relationships between crop yield and pollinator abundance

Pollinators are estimated to benefit the reproduction of three-quarters of global leading crop species and contribute to 3%–8% of the total global food production. Ongoing declines in pollinator populations have raised concerns about repercussions for food security. Thus, there is a need to better understand how agricultural yields depend on pollinator abundance. Here, we established yield–pollinator relationships for 24 crops, capitalizing on a recently published global database with paired records of crop yield and pollinator abundance. We used linear mixed-effects modelling to relate relative yields to total pollinator abundance, accounting for differences in climate and farming practices. Overall, we found a positive relationship between crop yield and pollinator abundance, which was modified by management practice and climate zone. At a given pollinator abundance, yields were significantly higher for conventional than for organic farms, while yields in temperate regions were significantly higher than those in tropical regions. In addition, we found a positive relationship between relative yield and pollinator abundance for 21 out of the 24 crop species, indicating that variability in pollinator numbers across agricultural fields has consequences for crop pollination. Synthesis and applications. Our global and context-specific yield–pollinator relationships, based on the best available data to date, represent a key step towards quantitative models for assessing the degree of pollination sufficiency worldwide. We believe that this will increase the robustness of pollination model outputs and better inform the transition towards pollinator-friendly agricultural practices.