The majority of the world’s plants rely on animal pollinators at least to some degree for reproduction. Reports of global pollinator declines have raised concerns that wild plants are facing a pollination crisis. In plants the degree of pollen limitation, a reduction in fruit or seed set as a result of limited pollen supply, can be used as a direct assessment of plant reproductive success in relation to pollination services. We created a global pollen limitation dataset, containing over 3,000 experimental measures of pollen limitation for a ~1,200 wild plant species, over a 40-year period to document spatiotemporal changes in pollen limitation.
Results/Conclusions
We found an increase in pollen limitation through time that was more pronounced in areas with high biodiversity that are experiencing rapid environmental change. In these locations, competition for pollinator services is likely to be high. Plants exclusively pollinated by obligate flower-feeding specialist bees were more affected through time than other plants. Our results support evidence of a global decline in the services of pollinators that is affecting the reproductive success of wild plants. Our results fuel concern over wild plant biodiversity under global anthropogenic change.