THE GUARDIAN
Cut an apple in half, and the white flesh reveals a cluster of black pips arranged in the shape of a star. It is a tiny constellation of seeds hidden in the fruit bowl. But it reveals an interlinked universe of pollination and nature’s abundance – a delicate system, and one that can easily be thrown off course.
When the apple blossoms are pollinated, seeds pump out hormones telling the plant to produce the right vitamins, minerals and rate of growth. They help formulate crunchiness, size and shape. Lose those pollinators, however, and this fragile system becomes unbalanced. If only three or four of the seeds get pollinated, our apple may grow lopsided. The nutritional value might decrease, as could the shelf-life of the fruit, turning it brown and wrinkled before its time.
The story of the apple is one being retold over and over across the world. A new report warns that two million species are at risk of extinction, twice as many as in previous estimates by the UN. This increase is down to better data on insect populations, which have been less understood than other groups.
Often, it is animals such as insects – the species we tend to care the least about – which provide the greatest services to human populations: pollinating crops, helping provide healthy soils and controlling pests.
Despite ongoing uncertainties about invertebrates, the alarming loss of wildlife globally is well documented. In the past 50 years, wildlife populations have decreased by 70% on average – and their loss is already affecting how human societies operate and sustain themselves.
What’s happening to pollination?
The latest study estimates that 24% of invertebrates are at risk of extinction – they are the ones that do the most pollination.
Crops that provide most of our vitamins and minerals, such as fruits, vegetables and nuts, depend on pollinators and organisms in the soil that keep it fertile. An estimated 75% of food crops rely on pollinators to some degree and 95% of food comes directly or indirectly from the soil.
Prof Simon Potts, from Reading University, says: “If you get less pollination, you’re going to get less production. But not only less yield or tonnage, the quality of that produce is going to go down … your strawberries will be misshapen and they won’t be so packed full of sugars.”
“We call this ‘pollination deficit’,” he says.
A review of scientific databases from 48 countries, published in Nature Communications, looking at 48 different crops, found fruits pollinated by animals and insects had on average 23% better quality than those which were not pollinated by animals, particularly improving the shape, size and shelf-life of fruit and vegetables.
Growing fruit that is short-lived and looks odd is likely to increase food waste, with the impact felt through the production chain, researchers warn.
What does that do to our global food system?
Insect pollination contributes more than £600m a year to the UK economy. “Biodiversity should be regarded as legitimate agricultural input,” Potts says. “Farmers manage water, they manage fertilisers and pesticides, manage the seeds we put in the ground, but very few manage biodiversity as an input.”
Globally, between 3% and 5% of vegetable, fruit and nut production is being lost due to inadequate pollination, according to research led by Harvard University and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
The lead researcher, Matthew Smith, who specialises in environmental health, says: “At first glance, I was surprised that the figure seemed somewhat modest.”
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