Plant and animal studies

Pollinators — bees, butterflies, flies, and other animals that transfer pollen between flowers — underpin roughly a third of global food production and sustain the plant communities that structure most terrestrial ecosystems. Researchers studying plant-animal interactions in this context work to understand how habitat fragmentation, climate shifts, pesticide exposure, and invasive species are reshaping the mutualistic networks that link flowering plants to the animals that pollinate them. A central open question is how the loss or simplification of these networks propagates through ecosystems — whether, for instance, the disappearance of a specialist bee triggers cascading effects on the plants it uniquely serves. Current work is increasingly focused on identifying which landscape features and management practices can buffer pollinator communities against global change, and on quantifying the real economic and ecological costs when those communities fail.

Works

288,039

Total citations

5,536,989

Keywords

Pollinator DeclineEcosystem ServicesPlant-Animal InteractionsBiodiversityCrop PollinationHabitat Fragmentation