Pollinators help one-third of world's crop production, says new study

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Strawberries Fragaria x annanasa Duch. after open insect-pollination (left) passive self-pollination (middle) and passive self-pollination and wind-pollination (right). (Photo by Kristine Krewenka Agroecology Gttingen Germany.)
Strawberries, Fragaria x annanasa Duch., after open insect-pollination (left), passive self-pollination (middle) and passive self-pollination and wind-pollination (right). (Photo by Kristine Krewenka, Agroecology, Göttingen, Germany.)

Pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world's crop production, increasing the output of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide, finds a new study published today (Wednesday, Oct. 25), in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences and co-authored by a conservation biologist at the University of California, Berkeley.


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