Advancing pollinator science : a new global and integrative research platform

Abstract

Background Pollinators comprise a taxonomically diverse group – including insects, mammals, birds, and more rarely, amphibians, reptiles, and even gastropods – that support wild plant communities and underpin global food production systems (Klein et al. 2007; Rader et al. 2015; Siopa et al. 2024). However, numerous pollinator populations are undergoing rapid declines across multiple regions and ecosystems (e.g., Regan et al. 2015; Potts et al. 2016; Seibold et al. 2019; Warren et al. 2021; Stewart et al. 2024). These declines stem from interacting anthropogenic pressures (Fig. 1), including habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution, climate change, land-use intensification, and the spread of pests and pathogens (Dicks et al. 2021). Understanding the combined effects of these pressures is essential for developing effective and scalable mitigation strategies that can be implemented across sectors – ranging from policy, education and land management to agricultural practice and community-led conservation (Potts et al. 2011; Hölting et al. 2022; Stout and Dicks 2022). Pollinator research encompasses much more than the study of environmental stressors and the conservation of these vital organisms. It spans fundamental biology, ecological interactions, evolutionary processes, agroecological systems, economics, cultural relationships, and social dimensions. However, current research and management efforts remain fragmented: studies sometimes focus on single taxa, ecological scales and socio-economic contexts – separated by disciplinary boundaries, specialised funding schemes, and siloed publication landscapes. As a result, the pollinator evidence base is fragmented and biased, with a disproportionate emphasis on Europe and North America, bees, agricultural systems, and crop pollination. Advances in Pollinator Research (APR) seeks to address these imbalances by encouraging research from underrepresented regions, taxa, and ecological contexts. Meeting the global challenge of pollinator losses requires an environment where information flows openly and easily between fields, helping transdisciplinary collaboration – with farmers, Indigenous communities, policymakers, industry, NGOs, and citizen scientists – to become central to knowledge co-production. A dedicated platform that integrates different perspectives, encourages methodological transparency, and provides global access to research is therefore essential.