DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18008330
title: Pollination

description: Data on the economic dependence of cultivated plants on animal pollination, as well as observations of pollinators on plant species, particularly cultivated plants. Proof of concept for the Pollination Ontology as part of the EU Pollinator Hub Controlled Vocabulary (EUPH-CV).
description: Data overview:



The dataset contains data on economic dependence of pollination by animals in crops as well as observations of pollinators on plant species, in particular crops.


Data value:



The dataset allows linkage between plants, pollinating animals, and human economic activities.


Data description:



The dataset contains 4 tables: 



crops_pecies  contains names of aggregates of crops as well as single crops traded on the world market provided by FAOSTAT and/or Klein and co-workers (2007). Plant species are identified by the access number of the accepted scientific name of the organism at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). 

pollination_dependency contains data on the estimated range of production reduction without the presence of animal pollinators on crops, referred to as pollination dependency. Data was obtained from Klein and co-workers (2007).

insect_plant contains data on documented faunistic observations of insect species on plant species, mainly crops, obtained from literature references and images from a photographer. The information on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) was used as taxonomic reference for all species referred to in this table.

imagelist contains information on images provided.
description: Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT), the statistical data website of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), was obtained on March 29, 2022. Later versions of the database are therefore not considered. Data from scientific literature and images were acquired manually. Data from FAO is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO license (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo). In addition to this license, some database specific terms of use are listed: https://www.fao.org/contact-us/terms/db-terms-of-use/en/.

Raw data was rearranged and converted to CSV format using Excel (Microsoft Corporation, version 15.0.5293.1000) and subsequently imported for profiling into a MySQL database (Oracle Corporation) running in a XAMPP environment (BitRock, version 2.3.4). Data was exported from the MySQL database to CSV format using windows-1252 coding. Data for this dataset are stored CSV format. Three tables provide a linkage between entities: Crop aggregate to single crop (crop_aggregate), single crop to plant species (crop_species), pollinating insect to pollinated plant species (insect_plant). One table contains information on the economic impact of pollination on the economic value of crop production (pollination_dependency). Four tables contain specific references (ref_flag, ref_image, ref_source, ref_unit) used in this dataset. Data were explored using descriptive statistics. Metrics for selected key columns are reported.
description: This data is suited for linking data from existing data hubs such as the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT), national databases containing data on agricultural production, beekeeping and pesticide use, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) as well as data from scientific and technical publications. Possible research questions include the following:



What is the economic impact of pollination by animals on the economic value of crop production in a given area and a given year?

What is the economic value of beehive products relative to the economic value of pollination by animals for crop production in a given area and a given year?

What is the proportion of agricultural land requiring pollination by animals in the total agricultural land in a given area and a given year?

What is the average number of beehives in an area per unit of agricultural land requiring pollination in a given area and a given year?

Which animals are potential pollinators of a given crop or a given plant species in an area?

Which pollinating insects are potentially threatened due to the application of plant protection products on a crop in an area?