Volume 61, Issue 337, January - April 2025

The role of agroforestry systems on pollinator diversity and the provision of pollinator services

Mariana Abrahão^1♦, Bruno Henrique dos Santos Ferreira^2,3, Letícia Couto Garcia³, Helena Maura Torezan-Silingardi⁴

¹Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação dos Recursos Naturais, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil
²Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science, Kunming, China
³Laboratório Ecologia da Intervenção, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, MS, Brazil
⁴Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Instituto de Biologia, Laboratório de Ecologia Comportamental e de Interações. Uberlândia, MG, Brazil

^♦Corresponding Author
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação dos Recursos Naturais, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil

ABSTRACT

Pollination is one of the most relevant aspects of the complex interactions that guarantee ecosystem functionality, since it is directly related to crop productivity. We reviewed the literature on how agroforestry systems (AFS) may enhance pollination services, increasing crop yield and supporting local and regional pollinator diversity and abundance within adjacent agricultural landscapes. We also overviewed the potential of AFS as an ecological restoration approach. Out of 396 studies, we included 129 scientific papers from 23 countries between 2004 and 2024. However, there is an imbalance in research distribution regarding countries, scope, and study types. We found that the United States, Brazil, and Germany have the highest number of publications in the area, accounting for nearly 50% of the publications included in this review. There has been a growing investment of studies on this topic over the past two decades, but just recently, the field has gained attention, particularly in the last five years. The most discussed areas were the provision of pollination services and its economic impacts, and the effect of agroforestry management on pollinator diversity. Moreover, we identified a data gap regarding mammalian pollinators, economic costs, and financial return among currently published data. The potential of AFS in restoring landscape remains underexplored (18% of the analyzed studies) despite its importance in ecosystem sustainability through the restoration of ecological networks, particularly mutualistic interactions like pollination, which holds great significance pursuing long-term ecosystem health.

Keywords: Bees; conservation; crop yield; ecosystem services; restoration.

Discovery, 2025, 61, e1d1493

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi.v61i337.e1d1493

Published: 03 January 2025