Proximity of natural habitat to farmland has been shown to boost the delivery of pollination services and enhance yields in crops that rely on animal pollinators to set fruit. While our caloric needs can mostly be met by wind-pollinated crops such as cereals, a recent analysis of USDA data shows that animal-pollinated crops contain the vast majority of many essential nutrients, including vitamins A and C, calcium, fluoride, folic acid, and many antioxidants. In this work we combined global crop yield data with data on nutritional content in each crop to map nutrient production around the world, and to illustrate the value of pollination services to human nutrition. Spatially explicit crop yields (at 5 min resolution) were multiplied by crop nutrient content and by crop dependence on pollination to map where reductions in total nutrient production would occur if pollination services were removed. Nutrient "demand" maps (human nutrient requirements multiplied by population density) were also generated to identify regions where local reduction in pollination services could threaten nutritional security.
Results/Conclusions
Without pollination services, many regions around the globe would suffer reduced yields of nutritionally important crops. While some of the local nutrient deficiencies that would occur without pollination could likely be ameliorated by switching to crops less or not dependent on pollination, this would require substantial education about or promotion of the different crops that could meet nutrient requirements, or the establishment of new trade patterns to compensate for loss in local nutrition production. In certain regions, where nutrition is already poor and purchasing power is low, reduction or removal of pollination services will be especially detrimental to human health. The protection of habitat to maintain pollination services is vital in these most vulnerable regions, and this could help prioritize conservation in regions currently under threat of agricultural expansion.