Have a read of my book review about an essential and inspiring book, entitled Promoting pollination and pollinators in farming (2023) edited by Peter Kevan and D. Susan Willis Chan, published in Community Ecology (Springer Nature).
To give you a little teaser, here is a snippet from my review:
“The primary strength of this book lies in its integration of (agro)ecological insights with practical, pollinator protection-based farming applications, providing up-to-date and forward-looking knowledge to ecologists, agronomists, and policy-makers alike. “
In the time of global agricultural intensification marked by insect decline and increasing concerns about sustainability, this book provides a timely and indispensable guide to modern, pollinator-assisted sustainable crop production. The book is structured into three parts: The first introduces pollination and the role of its participants in agriculture, while the second part delves into the abiotic and biotic factors threatening pollinators, with particular concern for bees. In the last part, alongside the exploration of plant–pollinator networks, the attention is directed to modern crop management practices, complemented by suggestive case studies. The book provides new, complex perspectives, such as bee hotels acting both as tools for supporting biodiversity and potential threats by facilitating the spread of invasive bee species. For those working with bumblebees, the final chapter on using them as entomovectors in biocontrol can be particularly interesting. The primary strength of this book lies in its integration of (agro)ecological insights with practical, pollinator protection-based farming applications, providing up-to-date and forward-looking knowledge to ecologists, agronomists, and policy-makers alike. While the general introduction briefly summarizes the thirteen chapters, it does not explain the logical link between them. This link seems to be missing, and several chapters contain general phrases about importance of pollination and pollinators, leading to unnecessary repetition of well-known phenomena. Furthermore, it would have been more coherent to discuss the impact of biotic factors together and introduce the general impacts of pesticides before dealing with the effect of neonicotinoids, which would overcome the problem of repeating information. Nevertheless, the main feature of the book is the comprehensive content, covering even topics like the ecotoxicological risk assessment of bees, and the strong emphasis on future research trends. Figures and tables improve the clarity and complement the book’s main content effectively. In summary, despite some imperfections in editing, this book offers a thorough and insightful exploration of wild and managed bees, along with their indisputable roles in sustainable agriculture.
– Zsófia Varga-Szilay
