This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
Through their provision of pollinator habitat, the total supply by ecosystems to the wild pollinator-dependent crop yield in 2018 was 19,500 tonnes (Figure 4.1, Table 4.1). The ecosystem types contributing most were Forests & Woodlands (8,900 tonnes), Grasslands (6,000 tonnes) and Croplands (4,400 tonnes), whereas Inland Wetlands and Heathlands & Shrubs contributed 100 tonnes each. In decreasing order, 10,700 tonnes of this yield were from fruits (mainly apples), 4,300 tonnes were from oil-bearing crops (mainly oilseed rape), 3,900 tonnes were from pulses (mainly beans) and 600 tonnes were from vegetables (mainly pumpkins; Figure 4.1, Table 4.1).
Altogether, ecosystems supplied the crop pollination service to 9,700 hectares of crops (Figure 4.1, Table 4.2) This included 600 hectares of fruits, 4,900 hectares of oil-bearing crops, 4,100 hectares of pulses and 100 hectares of vegetables. The total yield from these crops was 84,900 tonnes, meaning that ecosystems increased the pollinator-dependent crop yield by 30%. The crop pollination service provided by ecosystems increased the yield of fruits by 105%, oil-bearing crops by 12%, pulses by 22% and vegetables by 38%. Since all of the supply of crops is harvested by the agriculture sector, the supply of the crop pollination service was completely allocated to intermediate consumption by industry.
X-axis label | Croplands | Grasslands | Forests & Woodlands | Heathlands & Shrubs | Inland Wetlands |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pulses | 0.4 | 0.7 | 2.7 | 0 | 0.1 |
Oil-bearing Crops | 0.4 | 0.9 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Vegetables | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 |
Fruits | 3.5 | 4.3 | 2.8 | 0.1 | 0 |
Total yield attributable to wild pollinators | 4.4 | 6 | 8.9 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
Of the 22,000 hectares growing wild-pollinator dependent crops in 2018, 12,300 hectares were not within range of ecosystems providing suitable pollinator habitat, and therefore were unlikely to receive the crop pollination service (Figure 4.2, Table 4.2). This was 57% of land growing oil-bearing crops and pulses, 50% of land growing vegetables and 25% of land growing fruits. The maximum expected wild pollinator-dependent yield in 2018 was 37,300 tonnes. This means that 17,800 additional tonnes of wild pollinator-dependent crops were not realised due to insufficient pollinator habitat availability (Table 4.3). By crop type, if sufficient habitat were available, the yield of fruits, oil-bearing crops, pulses and vegetables would have been 20% (4,100 tonnes), 16% (6,600 tonnes), 28% (6,100 tonnes) and 45% (1,000 tonnes) higher, respectively (Figure 4.3, Table 4.3).
X-axis label | Area of pollinator-dependent crops visited by wild pollinators | Area of pollinator dependent crops not visited by wild pollinators |
---|---|---|
Pulses | 4.1 | 5.5 |
Oil-bearing Crops | 4.9 | 6.5 |
Vegetables | 0.1 | 0.1 |
Fruits | 0.6 | 0.2 |
Total | 9.7 | 12.3 |
X-axis label | Yield of pollinator-dependent crops | Proportion of yield attributable to wild pollinators | Additional pollinator-dependent yield not realised |
---|---|---|---|
Pulses | 21.5 | 3.9 | 6.1 |
Oil-bearing Crops | 40.3 | 4.3 | 6.6 |
Vegetables | 2.2 | 0.6 | 1 |
Fruits | 20.9 | 10.7 | 4.1 |
Total | 84.9 | 19.5 | 17.8 |
From the estimated supply of pollinator-dependent crops by ecosystems and the modelled areas of ecosystems providing pollinator habitat, the yield per hectare of each ecosystem type can be derived (Figure 4.4, Table 4.4). For every hectare of the Croplands ecosystem type providing habitat for wild pollinators, an additional 11 tonnes of crops were yielded. Forests & Woodlands and Grasslands both yielded one additional tonne of crops for every hectare providing pollinator habitat. Heathlands & Shrubs and Inland Wetlands had the lowest added yield (0.2 tonnes) per hectare providing pollinator habitat. The overall added yield per hectare of ecosystem providing habitat for wild pollinators was 1.2 tonnes. This can be considered the average yield added if at least one hectare of ecosystem providing wild pollinator habitat is located within 1 km of a crop which is at least partly dependent on pollination by wild insects.
X-axis label | Modelled yield per hectare (tonnes) |
---|---|
Heathlands & Shrubs | 0.2 |
Inland Wetlands | 0.2 |
Grasslands | 1 |
Forests & Woodlands | 1 |
Croplands | 11 |
Total | 1.2 |
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