Herbarium specimens reveal long-term decline in pollination services since in the 1970s

2025 · doi:10.32942/x22p9j
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The paper used herbarium specimens to quantify changes in pollination services over time for orchids in the genus Caladenia in Australia, analyzing 10,494 preserved flowers spanning roughly the past century. It found a total decline in pollination services of more than 60%, with the sharpest reductions beginning after the 1970s, and declines occurring across multiple Caladenia species and pollinator threat statuses. Sexually deceptive species showed more pronounced declines, and region-specific historical land-use change and rising temperatures were significant predictors of the decline. The main limitation noted is that the study relies on herbarium material and thus reflects changes inferred from preserved specimen data rather than direct, contemporary field measurements. The paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

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Abstract

Anthropogenic change has resulted in pollinator decline and altered plant-pollinator interactions. This may drive widespread declines in pollination and reproductive success of plants, yet few datasets allow us to track changes in pollination services over time. Herbaria provide a unique opportunity to assess pollination services across broad spatial and temporal scales, and the associated spatiotemporal anthropogenic change. We quantified changes in pollination services to the orchid genus Caladenia over the past century, a period of rapid land-use intensification and climate change in Australia. Examining 10,494 Caladenia flowers preserved at the Australian National Herbarium showed a reduction in pollination services totaling > 60 % over the whole study period, with rapid declines occurring post 1970. Declines in pollination services occurred across species pollinated by different taxa and threat status. Sexually deceptive species had more pronounced declines in pollinator services. Historical land-use change, and rising temperatures varied by region and were significant predictors of pollination service decline. Our findings provide rare evidence of declines in pollination services modulated by pollination syndrome and demonstrate the value of herbarium collections in understanding global change.
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Abstract

Anthropogenic change has resulted in pollinator decline and altered plant-pollinator interactions. This may drive widespread declines in pollination and reproductive success of plants, yet few datasets allow us to track changes in pollination services over time. Herbaria provide a unique opportunity to assess pollination services across broad spatial and temporal scales, and the associated spatiotemporal anthropogenic change. We quantified changes in pollination services to the orchid genus Caladenia over the past century, a period of rapid land-use intensification and climate change in Australia. Examining 10,494 Caladenia flowers preserved at the Australian National Herbarium showed a reduction in pollination services totaling > 60 % over the whole study period, with rapid declines occurring post 1970. Declines in pollination services occurred across species pollinated by different taxa and threat status. Sexually deceptive species had more pronounced declines in pollinator services. Historical land-use change, and rising temperatures varied by region and were significant predictors of pollination service decline. Our findings provide rare evidence of declines in pollination services modulated by pollination syndrome and demonstrate the value of herbarium collections in understanding global change. DOI https://doi.org/10.32942/X22P9J Subjects Biodiversity, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Monitoring, Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences

Keywords

Orchidaceae, pollination, food deception, sexual deception, herbarium Dates Published: 2025-08-22 16:50 Last Updated: 2025-08-22 16:50 License CC-BY Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Additional Metadata Language: English

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