Value of wildland habitat for supplying pollination services to californian agriculture

The article outlines a method for quantifying the value of pollination services supplied by wild bee communities based on the area of nearby wildland habitats, chiefly rangelands, to pollinator-dependent crops in California. Wild pollinators are known to supply sufficient pollination services for fruit set and/or seed set for pollinator-dependent crops, under environmental conditions that support diverse and abundant pollinator communities. Many economic valuation studies on pollination have been conducted without considering the ecology of the system: the reliance of the pollinators on off-farm habitat for floral resources or nesting and overwintering sites or the pollinators' foraging range. While the exact nature of the relationship between natural habitat and wild bee abundance, diversity, and pollination services may change from crop to crop, the positive relationship between natural habitat and wild bee pollination services of watermelon is repeated in our studies of almond and other crops in California and in a worldwide synthesis.