pollinator-network-utac

GenesisAeon Package 116 — real, independently verified pollinator decline and plant-pollinator network-cascade science. Third of the three remaining candidate gap-topics from UTACnextSteps.txt (after coral-reef-utac P114 and biodiversity-utac P115). Deliberately has no UTAC/CREP/AFET bridge and no invented Γ value — see DISCLAIMER.md.

For a plain-language explanation of the same topic (German, no jargon, written for general audiences), see WHITEPAPER.md.

Deliberately not one-sided

does_adding_managed_pollinators_always_help_wild_pollinator_networks() returns False — Valido et al. (2019) found that beekeeping (managed honeybee introduction, often done with pollinator-conservation intent) measurably reduced wild-pollinator diversity and disrupted network structure in a real field study. "More pollinators" is not automatically good for wild pollinator biodiversity.

What's real here

• Hallmann et al. (2017, PLOS ONE) — the real Krefeld study: total flying insect biomass in 63 German protected areas fell by an average of 76% (up to 82% at midsummer peak) over 27 years (1989–2016) — measured inside protected areas, pointing to landscape-level or climatic drivers beyond local habitat loss.
• IPBES (2016) Pollinator Assessment — the real, official global figures: 35% of crop production volume depends on animal pollination, worth USD 235–577 billion/year; pollinator-dependent production volume grew 300% in 50 years, even as 16.5% of vertebrate pollinators are threatened and 37%/31% of regional bee/butterfly populations decline.
• Vanbergen et al. (2017, Functional Ecology) — a real, published network-structure finding: the properties that make a plant-pollinator network resistant to small disturbances are the same properties that can make it prone to cascading collapse once a structurally important species is lost — robustness and fragility are two faces of the same real structure.
• Valido, Rodríguez-Rodríguez & Jordano (2019, Scientific Reports) — the honesty-check citation: managed honeybee introduction measurably disrupted wild-pollinator network structure in a real field study, a real complication to "more pollinators is always better."

Quickstart

pip install pollinator-network-utac

from pollinator_network_utac import (
    KREFELD_DECLINE, is_decline_explained_by_habitat_loss_within_the_reserves,
    GLOBAL_DEPENDENCY, is_pollinator_demand_growing_faster_than_supply,
    does_robustness_to_random_loss_guarantee_resistance_to_structured_loss,
    does_adding_managed_pollinators_always_help_wild_pollinator_networks,
)

print(KREFELD_DECLINE.average_decline_pct)   # 76.0
print(GLOBAL_DEPENDENCY.crop_volume_dependent_pct)  # 35.0
print(is_pollinator_demand_growing_faster_than_supply())  # True
print(does_adding_managed_pollinators_always_help_wild_pollinator_networks())  # False

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pre-commit install
ruff check src tests
mypy src
pytest

Citation

See CITATION.cff and .zenodo.json.