Pollination in Agroecosystems: A Review of the Conceptual Framework with a View to Sound Monitoring

Manuela Giovanetti, Sergio Albertazzi, Simone Flaminio, Rosa Ranalli, Laura Bortolotti and Marino Quaranta
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Manuela Giovanetti: CREA Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via di Corticella n. 133, 40128 Bologna, Italy
Sergio Albertazzi: CREA Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via di Corticella n. 133, 40128 Bologna, Italy
Simone Flaminio: CREA Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via di Corticella n. 133, 40128 Bologna, Italy
Rosa Ranalli: CREA Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via di Corticella n. 133, 40128 Bologna, Italy
Laura Bortolotti: CREA Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via di Corticella n. 133, 40128 Bologna, Italy
Marino Quaranta: CREA Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via di Corticella n. 133, 40128 Bologna, Italy

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-19

Abstract: The pollination ecology in agroecosystems tackles a landscape in which plants and pollinators need to adjust, or be adjusted, to human intervention. A valid, widely applied approach is to regard pollination as a link between specific plants and their pollinators. However, recent evidence has added landscape features for a wider ecological perspective. Are we going in the right direction? Are existing methods providing pollinator monitoring tools suitable for understanding agroecosystems? In Italy, we needed to address these questions to respond to government pressure to implement pollinator monitoring in agroecosystems. We therefore surveyed the literature, grouped methods and findings, and evaluated approaches. We selected studies that may contain directions and tools directly linked to pollinators and agroecosystems. Our analysis revealed four main paths that must come together at some point: (i) the research question perspective, (ii) the advances of landscape analysis, (iii) the role of vegetation, and (iv) the gaps in our knowledge of pollinators taxonomy and behavior. An important conclusion is that the pollinator scale is alarmingly disregarded. Debate continues about what features to include in pollinator monitoring and the appropriate level of detail: we suggest that the pollinator scale should be the main driver.

Keywords: bees; pollinators; vegetation; agroecosystems; landscape analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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