Understanding the role of species richness for crop pollination services

Abstract This chapter discusses the role of flower-visiting species richness for crop pollination services. General arguments why flower-visitor species richness can be important for the mutualistic plant partners are described; highlighting the mechanisms that underlie flower-visiting species richness-pollination services relationships. The visualization and quantification of plant-flower visitor interaction webs are demonstrated and linked to crop pollination research. Current knowledge about the consequences of pollinator decline for the global food supply are presented and pollination markets for honey bees and other bee species are discussed using alfalfa as a case study. This chapter shows that conservation and restoration for high species richness is important to provide insurance and stabilise for pollination services interacting with nature in a changing world.