In recent years there has been an increasing concern regarding the global decline of pollinators and pollination services1,2,3. Recent studies estimate that over 87% of the flowering plant species rely on biotic pollination4. Pollination is a mutualistic interaction, and plants provide pollinators with various rewards, including nectar, oil, or excess pollen to feed upon5,6. Although bees are the most well-known pollinator group, pollination can be performed by a wide variety of species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, and other insects.
Plant-pollinator interactions are among the key processes that generate and maintain biodiversity7,8. The coevolutionary processes involved in animal pollination have helped maintain the structure and function of entire communities and species’ networks. Wild plant species and natural ecosystems provide several products and services, including nutrient cycling, medicine, food, a source of pollinators for domesticated crops, and alternative food and shelter sources for agricultural pollinators9. However, the complex web of interactions and the large number of species involved (ca. 400,000 species globally) makes it challenging to estimate pollinators’ value in natural ecosystems, particularly when the life history of so many pollinator species remains little studied and understood10.
Pollinators also provide highly valuable ecosystem services to crops11,12. More than 70% of the world’s crops depend directly on insect pollination, making pollination key to food security11,13. The European honeybee (Apis mellifera) is likely the most economically important pollinator of crops worldwide13,14. Honeybees are adaptable, easy to manage, and cost-efficient. However, in recent years, ‘colony collapse’ caused by several factors, including parasitic mites and the excessive use of pesticides and herbicides, have led to a decline in managed honeybee colonies in many parts of the world15,16,17. Similarly, habitat loss and fragmentation have detrimental effects on both native and commercial pollinators. In degraded habitats, pollinators struggle to find resources and nesting sites18,19,20.
In Chile, pollination represents a multimillion-dollar business. Between January and October 2020, the export of Chilean fruit reached USD 4.149 million, while fresh vegetables generated USD 347 million during the same period21. Although agricultural pollinators have been well studied, native pollinators remain largely unknown. With over 460 species of native bees in Chile, approximately 70% are endemic; researchers have only begun to understand the relationships between native plants and their pollinators22,23,24. Also, managed honeybees and bumblebees introduced to Chile for crop pollination are highly invasive and easily leave croplands to forage in neighbouring native ecosystems25,26, competing directly with native pollinators for the ever-diminishing resources in native grasslands and forests posing a threat to Chile’s unique ecoregions25,27.
Because of the importance of pollination in the maintenance of biodiversity and the economic benefits of agricultural crop production, there is an urgent need to understand the causes behind the current decline in pollinator species. In this sense, collating and reviewing existing information on pollinators and making this information easily accessible in the form of a user-friendly database is of immeasurable value. In this study, we compiled the information available about pollination and pollinators (sensu lato) for Chile, aiming to understand plant-pollinator interactions, identify knowledge and geographic gaps, and provide a baseline from which to carry out further studies. We aimed to make a datasheet with a format that was adaptable to different regions and other countries by allowing it to be easily understood, easy to access and find and aiming to avoid duplicity of data. This study represents the first systematic effort to compile the available information on pollination and pollinators for Chile. This pollination catalogue for Chile adds to other international efforts of systematising this information as, for example, the Catalogue of Afrotropical Bees28 and the CPC Plant Pollinators Database29.
Source: Ecology - nature.com
