Global growth and stability of agricultural yield decrease with pollinator dependence.

ABSTRACT: Human welfare depends on the amount and stability of agricultural production, as determined by crop yield and cultivated area. Yield increases asymptotically with the resources provided by farmers' inputs and environmentally sensitive ecosystem services. Declining yield growth with increased inputs prompts conversion of more land to cultivation, but at the risk of eroding ecosystem services. To explore the interdependence of agricultural production and its stability on ecosystem services, we present and test a general graphical model, based on Jensen's inequality, of yield-resource relations and consider implications for land conversion. For the case of animal pollination as a resource influencing crop yield, this model predicts that incomplete and variable pollen delivery reduces yield me

SUBMITTER: Garibaldi LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3078347 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature