A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production

Human land use threatens global biodiversityand compromises multiple ecosystemfunctions critical to food production. Whether crop yield–related ecosystem servicescan be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance of species richness, abundance, and dominance for pollination; biological pest control; and final yields in the context of ongoing land-use change. Pollinator and enemy richness directly supported ecosystem servicesin addition to and independent of abundance and dominance. Up to 50% of the negative effects of landscape simplification on ecosystem serviceswas due to richness losses of service-providing organisms, with negative consequences for crop yields. Maintaining the biodiversity of ecosystem serviceproviders is therefore vital to sustain the flow of key agroecosystembenefits to society.