Skip to main content

Threats to Pollinator Abundance and Diversity

  • 1st Edition - October 1, 2026
  • Latest edition
  • Editor: Scott Elias
  • Language: English

Threats to Pollinator Abundance and Diversity, the first release in the Pollinators in Peril series, covers the latest research on insect pollinators, the threats to their surviva… Read more

Description

Threats to Pollinator Abundance and Diversity, the first release in the Pollinators in Peril series, covers the latest research on insect pollinators, the threats to their survival, declining populations, and what conservation actions should be taken. The book demonstrates that most threats to pollinators are either directly or indirectly human-caused, such as chemicals, land alteration, and habitat loss due to agricultural practices, as well as climate change and its many ripple effects. Covering everything from honeybee pathogens to butterfly range changes, this book covers concepts that are both crucial for researchers in entomology, upper-level students, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and adjacent fields.

Pollinating insects are among the most crucial species groups on earth. Without them, much of the earth’s vegetation would not survive and the elaborate ecosystems they sustain would collapse. Today, pollinator declines have reached critical levels in most regions of the world.

Key features

  • Compiles the most up-to-date knowledge on threats to insect pollinators
  • Covers a range of insect pollinator groups, including managed honeybees, native bees, butterflies, and hoverflies
  • Contextualizes the causes of insect population declines within the bigger picture of climate change

Readership

Early career researchers who study bees, butterflies, moths, and other pollinators. Researchers working in adjacent and related fields, such as plant science, agronomy, conservation science, food security, and beyond

Table of contents

1. Pollination: An essential ecosystem service

2. The co-evolution of flowering plants and pollinators

3. Native bee species: Solitary, inconspicuous, and poorly studied

4. The importance of hoverflies (Syrphidae) in wild and domesticated plant pollination

5. Diurnal and seasonal cycles of insect pollinator groups

6. The plant-pollinator disconnects of global warming

7. Threats to honeybee colonies I: Viral diseases, fungal infections, Vairimorpha

8. Threats to honeybee colonies II: Parasites: Acarapis woodi, Varroa destructor

9. Threats to honeybee colonies III: Long-distance hive transportation, Colony Collapse Disorder

10. Causes of bumble bee declines: Pesticides

11. Causes of bumblebee declines: Mismatching with floral resources

12. Causes of butterfly declines: Life cycle emergence changes

13. Causes of butterfly declines: Pesticides

14. Causes of butterfly declines: Range changes with global warming

15. Causes of bumble bee declines: Range changes with global warming

16. Pathogen spread between bee species through contaminated flowers

17. Heat-stress physiology of cold-adapted bumble bees

18. Effect of pesticide on bumble bee reproduction

19. Bumble bee responses to climate change

20. Asian bumble bee response to climate change

21. Phyllogenetic perspective on bumblebee declines

22. Effects of habitat fragmentation on bee populations

23. Insect pollinators facing imminent extinction: Causes and needed rescue efforts

24. Co-exposure or coinfection of insect pollinator diseases and parasites

25. Pollinator population declines and the erosion of genetic diversity

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: October 1, 2026
  • Language: English

About the editor

SE

Scott Elias

Scott A. Elias grew up in Colorado, USA, and received both an undergraduate degree and Ph.D. in Environmental Biology from the University of Colorado. He went on to do postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and the University of Berne, Switzerland. Scott returned to the University of Colorado in 1982 and became a research associate of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. In 2000 he took a lectureship in Physical Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, and became a Professor of Quaternary Science in 2007. He has served as editor-in-chief of three editions of the Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, and co-editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Geology and the Cryosphere Comprehensive.
Affiliations and expertise
University of Colorado, Westminster, Colorado, USA