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      Ecosystem services provided by Neotropical birds

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          Abstract

          The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment described 4 classes of services or functions that ecosystems and their component parts deliver to the benefit of humans: provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services. Birds, including Neotropical birds, provide a diverse array of services in all 4 classes. We review the literature describing ecosystem services provided by Neotropical birds, draw inference from studies of avian services in other regions when Neotropical studies are limited, and identify key information gaps. Neotropical birds provide provisioning services in the form of meat and eggs for food, and feathers for down and ornamentation. Regulating services are among the most valuable services provided by Neotropical birds, including pollination, pest control, seed dispersal, and scavenging. Neotropical birds also provide supporting services in the form of nutrient cycling, such as through the deposition of guano on offshore islands. Finally, Neotropical birds provide cultural services as pets (caged birds), sources of recreation (e.g., birdwatching, hunting), as well as by inspiring art, photography, and religious customs. Much remains to be learned about the ecology and natural history of many Neotropical birds before we can fully assign value—monetary, nonmaterial, or otherwise—to the services they provide. However, what we have learned to date makes it clear that humans benefit from birds through multiple services, including but not limited to pest reduction, pollination of some agricultural plants, and seed dispersal.

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          The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital

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            Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops.

            The extent of our reliance on animal pollination for world crop production for human food has not previously been evaluated and the previous estimates for countries or continents have seldom used primary data. In this review, we expand the previous estimates using novel primary data from 200 countries and found that fruit, vegetable or seed production from 87 of the leading global food crops is dependent upon animal pollination, while 28 crops do not rely upon animal pollination. However, global production volumes give a contrasting perspective, since 60% of global production comes from crops that do not depend on animal pollination, 35% from crops that depend on pollinators, and 5% are unevaluated. Using all crops traded on the world market and setting aside crops that are solely passively self-pollinated, wind-pollinated or parthenocarpic, we then evaluated the level of dependence on animal-mediated pollination for crops that are directly consumed by humans. We found that pollinators are essential for 13 crops, production is highly pollinator dependent for 30, moderately for 27, slightly for 21, unimportant for 7, and is of unknown significance for the remaining 9. We further evaluated whether local and landscape-wide management for natural pollination services could help to sustain crop diversity and production. Case studies for nine crops on four continents revealed that agricultural intensification jeopardizes wild bee communities and their stabilizing effect on pollination services at the landscape scale.
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              How many flowering plants are pollinated by animals?

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                (View ORCID Profile)
                Journal
                The Condor
                Oxford University Press (OUP)
                0010-5422
                1938-5129
                August 04 2020
                September 11 2020
                August 04 2020
                September 11 2020
                April 15 2020
                : 122
                : 3
                Affiliations
                [1 ]National Audubon Society, New York, New York, USA
                [2 ]Department of Cancer Physiology, Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Florida, USA
                [3 ]Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois, USA
                [4 ]Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois, USA
                [5 ]Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
                [6 ]Campus Do*Mar - International Campus of Excellence, Vigo, Spain
                Article
                10.1093/condor/duaa022
                d604053e-77ef-4e44-8d53-0024aa25ba9a
                © 2020

                https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model

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