📚 Have a read of my book review about an inspiring and thought-provoking book, entitled Pollinators & Pollination: Nature and Society (2021) by Prof. Jeff Ollerton, published in Community Ecology (Springer Nature).
As a teaser, here is a snippet from my review:
“By learning about the most important research and field experience of a 30-year-long career, biologists who are still looking for their niche in the scientific community can get inspired from the book and dedicate their career to saving pollinators.“
For a young scientist like me who is interested in pollination biology, it is vitally important to build up expert knowledge from the basics. Pollinators & Pollination by Jeff Ollerton is the perfect primer for this. Just by reading the Contents, it is apparent that the book covers all aspects of the topic and provides diverse information on pollination ecology across its 14 chapters. The 78 colour figures, including photographs, charts and graphs, are intriguing, informative, and they complement the text well. Ollerton comprehensively discusses all major pollinator groups from arthropods to vertebrates. He brings up fascinating plant-pollinator interactions, including those taxa whose pollination role we hear little about (like cockroaches and spiders), and through these examples, he shows the system in its full complexity. The book highlights that none of the parties in pollination are dispensable for the healthy functioning of ecosystems and, hence, the survival of human society. For students, the “To be a flower” chapter may be the most important. Here, Ollerton presents pollination from the less common perspective: that of the plants, and vividly explains why flowers are not merely passive participants in the intimate relationship with their flower-visiting animals. The book concerns highly actual topics such as the competition between native pollinators and honey bees, the pollinator-friendly management of agricultural and urban habitats, and the politics of pollination. In the seventh chapter, Ollerton highlights the importance of pollination by discussing the economic value of pollination through three examples: coffee, cocoa and two symbolic plants of Christmas. He emphasizes the importance of citizen science and, at the end of the book, he lists resources, such as identification guides, blogs and books about pollinators, as well as management practices, with which everyone can get involved in pollinator conservation. The book warns that the creation of new habitats cannot replace natural areas. By learning about the most important research and field experience of a 30-year-long career, biologists who are still looking for their niche in the scientific community can get inspired from the book and dedicate their career to saving pollinators.
– Zsófia Varga-Szilay