Economic and ecological implications of geographic bias in pollinator ecology in the light of pollinator declines

摘要

Understanding the causes and consequences of pollinator declines is a priority in ecological research. However, acrossmuch of the globe we have a poor understanding of pollinator assemblages, population trends and the ecological andeconomic importance of particular pollinators, due to a marked geographic bias in research eff ort. Here, we show thatalmost half the data cited in thirteen recent meta-analyses, which ask important and diverse questions in pollinationecology, were collected in just fi ve countries: Australia, Brazil, Germany, Spain and the USA. In contrast, the entirecontinent of Africa contributed only 4% of the data. We believe that the consequences of this geographic bias aresevere. Foremost, pollinator assemblages (and possibly their sensitivity to ecological drivers) can greatly vary amongthese regions. In addition, many communities that rely on pollinators, bees in particular, for food security and wealthgeneration are in geographic regions where our understanding of pollination is poor. Collecting accurate information onpollinator populations in data defi cient areas will allow us to identify vulnerable populations and species and so bettertarget conservation measures. Moreover, it will help us to determine if our current understanding of pollinator losses,based on data collected in a few locations and on the species that predominate in those regions, is representative of thewide diversity of ecosystems. We propose means of collecting such data given socioeconomic constraints.