Widespread losses of pollinating insects in Britain

Abstract Pollination is a critical ecosystem service underpinning the productivity of agricultural systems across the world. Wild insect populations provide a substantial contribution to the productivity of many crops and seed set of wild flowers. However, large-scale evidence on species-specific trends among wild pollinators are lacking. Here we show substantial inter-specific variation in pollinator trends, based on occupancy models for 353 wild bee and hoverfly species in Great Britain between 1980 and 2013. Furthermore, we estimate a net loss of over 2.7 million occupied 1 km 2 grid cells across all species. Declines in pollinator evenness suggest that losses were concentrated in rare species. In addition,…

• SG
  Scottish Government

  Award: WC1101
• DF
  Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK Government

  Award: WC1101
• SR
  Sight Research UK

  Awards: NE/N018125/1, NE/R016429/1
• NE
  Natural Environment Research Council

  Awards: NE/R016429/1, NE/N018125/1