TY - JOUR
T1 - Proximity to natural habitat is not consistently associated with pollination services in tropical smallholder farms
T2 - a systematic review and meta-analysis
AU - Bosshard, Ennia
AU - Harrison, Mark E.
AU - van Veen, Frank
AU - Kettle, Chris J.
AU - Chikkarangappa, Nagaraja Badenahally
AU - Banks, John E.
AU - Basu, Parthiba
AU - Casiá-Ajché, Quebin Bosbely
AU - Dalsgaard, Bo
AU - Dutta, Aditi
AU - Enríquez, Eunice
AU - Escobedo-Kenefic, Natalia
AU - Fierros-López, Hugo Eduardo
AU - Gemmill-Herren, Barbara
AU - Ghazoul, Jaboury
AU - Hansen, Katrine
AU - Hass, Annika L.
AU - Hipólito, Juliana
AU - Honnay, Oliver
AU - Kasina, John Muo
AU - Klein, Alexandra Maria
AU - Motzke, Iris Kormann
AU - Krishnan, Smitha
AU - Landaverde, Patricia
AU - Latini, Anderson Oliveira
AU - Li, Kevin
AU - Lucas-García, Rodrigo
AU - Munyuli, Theodore
AU - Narasimhaiah, Deepthi
AU - Obregon, Diana
AU - Quezada-Euán, J. Javier G.
AU - Riojas-López, Mónica E.
AU - Rosas-Guerrero, Victor
AU - Schrader, Julian
AU - Severiano-Galeana, Fernando
AU - Sitotaw, Tegegne Molla
AU - Sritongchuay, Tuanjit
AU - Tangtorwangsakul, Pornpimon
AU - Toledo-Hernandez, Manuel
AU - Tscharntke, Teja
AU - Viswanathan, Poornima
AU - Vogel, Cassandra
AU - Wanger, Thomas C.
AU - Wayo, Kanuengnit
AU - Westphal, Catrin
AU - Jones, Matt Lloyd
AU - Kaiser-Bunbury, Christopher N.
N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2025. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.
PY - 2025/12
Y1 - 2025/12
N2 - Proximity to natural habitat is known to enhance pollination services in large-scale agriculture, but it remains unclear whether this holds in tropical smallholder farms. These systems are embedded in ecologically complex landscapes, central to global food security, and depend heavily on biodiversity-derived ecosystem services. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 35 studies assessing the relationship between distance to natural habitat and pollinator abundance, species richness, and crop fruit set in tropical smallholder farms. We found no consistent patterns in pollinator abundance and crop fruit set with increasing distance, with relationships highly variable across studies. Similarly variable, yet slightly negative, was the relationship between distance and pollinator species richness. Our findings suggest limited support for the ‘proximity to natural habitat’ hypothesis in tropical smallholder farms, indicating that the inherent complexity of these landscapes may buffer negative effects of distance on pollination. This underscores the importance of maintaining and restoring landscape complexity to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services such as crop pollination. We also highlight the need for greater methodological consistency and publicly available raw data in future studies to strengthen the evidence base and support management strategies for safeguarding pollination services in tropical smallholder farms.
AB - Proximity to natural habitat is known to enhance pollination services in large-scale agriculture, but it remains unclear whether this holds in tropical smallholder farms. These systems are embedded in ecologically complex landscapes, central to global food security, and depend heavily on biodiversity-derived ecosystem services. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 35 studies assessing the relationship between distance to natural habitat and pollinator abundance, species richness, and crop fruit set in tropical smallholder farms. We found no consistent patterns in pollinator abundance and crop fruit set with increasing distance, with relationships highly variable across studies. Similarly variable, yet slightly negative, was the relationship between distance and pollinator species richness. Our findings suggest limited support for the ‘proximity to natural habitat’ hypothesis in tropical smallholder farms, indicating that the inherent complexity of these landscapes may buffer negative effects of distance on pollination. This underscores the importance of maintaining and restoring landscape complexity to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services such as crop pollination. We also highlight the need for greater methodological consistency and publicly available raw data in future studies to strengthen the evidence base and support management strategies for safeguarding pollination services in tropical smallholder farms.
KW - agroecosystems
KW - bee
KW - biodiversity conservation
KW - ecosystem services
KW - landscape ecology
KW - pollinator diversity
KW - sustainable agricultural landscapes
KW - synthesis
KW - tropical agriculture
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105023730312
U2 - 10.1111/ele.70229
DO - 10.1111/ele.70229
M3 - Review article
C2 - 41340175
AN - SCOPUS:105023730312
SN - 1461-023X
VL - 28
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - Ecology Letters
JF - Ecology Letters
IS - 12
M1 - e70229
ER -