DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15224384
title: The Database of Pollinator Interactions (DoPI) Dataset

description: Overview

DoPI (The Database of Pollinator Interactions) was built from a systematic review of the scientific literature and unpublished datasets requested from researchers and organisations. It contains records of interactions between British plant and flower-visitor species (or genera), together with associated metadata where available. 

Both direct observations and inferred observations via pollen analysis were added to the database, with the exception of: (i) birds (class: Aves), (ii) insects assumed to be feeding on the plant's phloem sap, rather than nectar or pollen, e.g. aphids (family: Aphididae), (iii) plants or pollinators that could not be associated with either a genera, species or species aggregate listed in the NBN Atlas (https://nbnatlas.org/). When encountering species records that did not match those listed in the NBN Atlas we searched the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (https://www.gbif.org/) for synonyms.

For each record we collated the following metadata, when available: plant and flower-visitor species/genus NBN Code, date, location, habitat, methodology (Table 1). We classified each record in terms of the strength of evidence that the floral visitor was a pollinator (rather than a flower visitor), to allow users to collate data if their analysis requires proven pollination. This was quantified using the scale detailed in Column X (Table 1). We also recorded pollinator species reported to be collecting nectar or pollen. Each record in the database is associated with a source publication (author(s), year, journal details, DOI, URL), allowing users to refer to the original literature/author for further information, if required. Errors may be present in the database due to mistakes in the original literature, interpretation of the data, or data entry. Extensive attempts have been made to minimize errors, especially of the third kind. We encourage users to report errors encountered in the database.

Database Contents

DoPI currently (April 2025) contains 101,539 records, detailing 329,918 interactions from 302 publications. The dates of these data range from 1802 to 2019, but the majority are from this century (95%; 2000-2019). The number of interactions (i.e. the number of times a pairwise species interaction was recorded per occasion) varies considerably between records, averaging 3.6. These include records from 1,888 pollinator species and 1,241 plant species, totalling >17,000 pairwise species interactions. 

The majority of DoPI pollinator records are from bee species (70.6%), followed by flies (18.8%), beetles (6.0%) and butterflies (2.1%). Diptera are the most speciose pollinator order in the database (747 species), followed by Hymenoptera (613), Lepidoptera (240) and Coleoptera (227). Bombus (56.3%), Apis (10.1%), Meligethes (2.7%), Pegoplata (2.4%), Andrena (1.9%), Eristalis (1.9%) and Episyrphus (1.9%) are the most frequently recorded pollinator genera.

The DoPI plant data is dominated by herbs (70.9%), followed by shrubs (23.7%) and trees (1.6%). Asterales (189 species), Lamiales (156) and Rosales (112) are the most speciose plant orders, with: Centaurea (8.0%), Rubus (7.9%), Ranunculus (5.3%) and Cirsium (5.1%) being the most commonly recorded plant genera.

The geographical coverage of the data held by DoPI is skewed towards southern England and central Scotland, with few data from the South and North of Scotland, the Scottish islands and northern England (Fig. 2). Suburban (16.1%), Arable and Horticulture (15.9%), Improved Grassland (14.4%) and Heathland (13.0%) are the most commonly recorded habitats.

For further details see the paper outlining the database constuction and contents: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.3801. We encourage authors to cite this paper or individual studies where appropriate.

Website: DoPI is currently accessible on the University of Sussex, Life Sciences website (https://www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/ebe/dopi) or at https://www.dopi.org.uk/.

 

Citation: Balfour, N.J., Castellanos, M.C., Goulson, D., Philippides, A. and Johnson, C., 2022. DoPI: The Database of Pollinator Interactions. Ecology, 103, e3801.

 

Table 1. Details of the dataset in the file (DoPI_dataset.csv) below. Data are given in 27 columns (Columns A-AA) with headers (Titles) and accompanying notes.








Column



Title



Notes





A



Authors



Publication author(s)





B



Title



Publication title





C



Journal



Publication journal





D



Pub Year



Publication year





E



Pub Vol



Publication volume





F



DOI



Publication Digital Object Identifier (https://www.doi.org)





G



Methodology



Methodology used in data collection.





H



Pollinator Survey



Survey effort in data collection (All, Group, Single Species)





I



Plant Survey



Survey effort in data collection (All, Group, Single Species)





J



NBN Pollinator Code



Pollinator species code from the NBN Atlas (https://nbnatlas.org/)





K



COL Pollinator Code



Pollinator species code from the Catalogue of Life (https://www.catalogueoflife.org/)





L



Pollinator Species



Pollinator species name from the NBN Atlas





M



Caste



Caste or gender of pollinator





N



NBN Plant Code



Plant species code from the NBN Atlas





O



COL Plant Code



Plant species code from the Catalogue of Life (https://www.catalogueoflife.org/)





P



Plant Species



Plant species name from the NBN Atlas





Q



Interactions



Number of interactions recorded





R



Date



Day of the month of interaction





S



Month



Month of interaction





T



Year



Year of interaction





U



Grid Letter



Location of interaction. Letters from the Ordnance Survey National Grid





V



Grid Code



Location of interaction. Numbers from the Ordnance Survey National Grid





W



Latitude



Location of interaction given in geographic coordinates





X



Longitude



Location of interaction given in geographic coordinates





Y



Habitat



Habitat type in which the interaction was recorded. Loosely based on those used on the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology Land Cover Map 2007 (https://www.ceh.ac.uk/services/land-cover-map-2007)





Z



Pollination



Pollination quality of interaction, i.e. effectiveness of visitor to pollinate the flower. Based on Ollerton et al. (2019) and Adams & Lawson (1993):

1 - pollination confirmed, visitors with pollen attached and observed to produce pollination of a flower (e.g., transferring pollen to stigmas and/or leading to seed set)2 - pollination inferred, visitors observed with pollen attached (but not confirmed to transfer pollen to stigmas)3 - pollination inferred from circumstantial evidence (e.g., visitors observed on flowers, but evidence of picking up pollen is missing)4 - no pollination, the flower-visitor is a nectar or pollen robber, a herbivore, a predator, or a parasite of insects in the flowers

Ollerton J. et al. 2019. The diversity and evolution of pollination systems in large plant clades: Apocynaceae as a case study, Annals of Botany, 123, 311–32.

Adams, P.B., and Lawson, S.D. 1993. Pollination in Australian orchids: a critical-assessment of the literature 1882-1992. Australian Journal of Botany 41, 553-575.





AA



Pollen



Pollen collection by pollinator species reported





AB



Nectar



Nectar collection by pollinator species reported





AC



Record



Record unique reference number





AD



ArticleURL



Publication web address