{"id":{"repo_id":"exeter","oai_identifier":"oai:figshare.com:article/32151685"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/exeter/oai:figshare.com:article/32151685","repository":{"repo_id":"exeter","name":"University of Exeter","base_url":"https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai"},"display":{"title":"Social and ecological dimensions of supporting wild pollinators in tropical smallholder farms","abstract":"Tropical smallholder farms support food security and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people and collectively shape vast areas of the tropics. In these landscapes, ecosystem services provided by wild insects, such as pollination services, play an important role in sustaining food security and biodiversity conservation. However, much of the research on pollination services to date has been developed in simplified, industrial agricultural systems, and often without consideration of the social contexts that shape land management. My thesis investigates these knowledge gaps by exploring ecological and social dynamics that influence the availability of habitat for wild pollinators in tropical smallholder farming landscapes. The dissertation consists of three data chapters from independent investigations, combining a global systematic review and meta-analysis with social and ecological fieldwork in western Kenya. The first data chapter synthesised evidence from 35 studies to assess the relationship between distance to natural habitat and pollination services in smallholder landscapes across the tropics. The analysis found no consistent relationships between distance to natural habitat and pollination services, with highly variable effect sizes across studies. Heterogeneity in study design, spatial and temporal scales, focal taxa, and reporting of key confounding variables further resulted in low overall certainty of evidence and highlights important methodological limitations in the existing literature. In the second data chapter, I explored the decision-making process of smallholder farmers’ intentions as to whether to diversify the shrubs and trees on their farms. Through surveys with 620 smallholder farmers in western Kenya, this chapter found that farmers were generally positive towards increasing the diversity of trees and shrubs on their farms. However, pollinators were rarely an explicit consideration, and decisions were constrained by multiple socio-economic and socio-cultural factors, including concerns about attracting wildlife, limited land availability, and time and labour constraints. The third data chapter investigated how pollinator communities and plant-pollinator interactions vary with forest proximity, farm-level woody plant diversity, and floral abundance in the same study area in western Kenya. Despite variation in distance to forest and farm level vegetation, we found no clear patterns in pollinator communities or plant-pollinator networks, further highlighting that existing elements in the multifunctional smallholder landscape may provide resources and habitat for wild pollinators. Together, these findings indicate that patterns in pollinator communities in tropical smallholder landscapes are shaped less by proximity to broadly defined natural habitat and more by interactions among fine-scale landscape heterogeneity, farm management, and seasonal dynamics. This highlights the need to move beyond coarse habitat metrics towards socially informed approaches that capture spatial and temporal complexity across landscapes. The thesis concludes by identifying priorities for advancing pollination research and outlining practical recommendations for conservation and land management within tropical smallholder landscapes.<p></p>","abstract_html":"Tropical smallholder farms support food security and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people and collectively shape vast areas of the tropics. In these landscapes, ecosystem services provided by wild insects, such as pollination services, play an important role in sustaining food security and biodiversity conservation. However, much of the research on pollination services to date has been developed in simplified, industrial agricultural systems, and often without consideration of the social contexts that shape land management. My thesis investigates these knowledge gaps by exploring ecological and social dynamics that influence the availability of habitat for wild pollinators in tropical smallholder farming landscapes. The dissertation consists of three data chapters from independent investigations, combining a global systematic review and meta-analysis with social and ecological fieldwork in western Kenya. The first data chapter synthesised evidence from 35 studies to assess the relationship between distance to natural habitat and pollination services in smallholder landscapes across the tropics. The analysis found no consistent relationships between distance to natural habitat and pollination services, with highly variable effect sizes across studies. Heterogeneity in study design, spatial and temporal scales, focal taxa, and reporting of key confounding variables further resulted in low overall certainty of evidence and highlights important methodological limitations in the existing literature. In the second data chapter, I explored the decision-making process of smallholder farmers’ intentions as to whether to diversify the shrubs and trees on their farms. Through surveys with 620 smallholder farmers in western Kenya, this chapter found that farmers were generally positive towards increasing the diversity of trees and shrubs on their farms. However, pollinators were rarely an explicit consideration, and decisions were constrained by multiple socio-economic and socio-cultural factors, including concerns about attracting wildlife, limited land availability, and time and labour constraints. The third data chapter investigated how pollinator communities and plant-pollinator interactions vary with forest proximity, farm-level woody plant diversity, and floral abundance in the same study area in western Kenya. Despite variation in distance to forest and farm level vegetation, we found no clear patterns in pollinator communities or plant-pollinator networks, further highlighting that existing elements in the multifunctional smallholder landscape may provide resources and habitat for wild pollinators. Together, these findings indicate that patterns in pollinator communities in tropical smallholder landscapes are shaped less by proximity to broadly defined natural habitat and more by interactions among fine-scale landscape heterogeneity, farm management, and seasonal dynamics. This highlights the need to move beyond coarse habitat metrics towards socially informed approaches that capture spatial and temporal complexity across landscapes. The thesis concludes by identifying priorities for advancing pollination research and outlining practical recommendations for conservation and land management within tropical smallholder landscapes.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ennia Bosshard (21053186)"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2026,"date_issued":"2026-04-27T00:00:00Z","date_published":"2026-04-27T00:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:33:13Z","subjects":["wild pollinators","tropical smallholder farms","agroecology","agroforestry","kenya"],"languages":[],"rights":["All rights reserved","Open Access after 2027-11-04"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10779/exe.32151685.v1"],"render_values":[{"text":"10779/exe.32151685.v1","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ennia Bosshard (21053186)"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2026-04-27T00:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Social_and_ecological_dimensions_of_supporting_wild_pollinators_in_tropical_smallholder_farms/32151685"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["wild pollinators","tropical smallholder farms","agroecology","agroforestry","kenya"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["All rights reserved","Open Access after 2027-11-04"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10779/exe.32151685.v1"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Tropical smallholder farms support food security and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people and collectively shape vast areas of the tropics. In these landscapes, ecosystem services provided by wild insects, such as pollination services, play an important role in sustaining food security and biodiversity conservation. However, much of the research on pollination services to date has been developed in simplified, industrial agricultural systems, and often without consideration of the social contexts that shape land management. My thesis investigates these knowledge gaps by exploring ecological and social dynamics that influence the availability of habitat for wild pollinators in tropical smallholder farming landscapes. The dissertation consists of three data chapters from independent investigations, combining a global systematic review and meta-analysis with social and ecological fieldwork in western Kenya. The first data chapter synthesised evidence from 35 studies to assess the relationship between distance to natural habitat and pollination services in smallholder landscapes across the tropics. The analysis found no consistent relationships between distance to natural habitat and pollination services, with highly variable effect sizes across studies. Heterogeneity in study design, spatial and temporal scales, focal taxa, and reporting of key confounding variables further resulted in low overall certainty of evidence and highlights important methodological limitations in the existing literature. In the second data chapter, I explored the decision-making process of smallholder farmers’ intentions as to whether to diversify the shrubs and trees on their farms. Through surveys with 620 smallholder farmers in western Kenya, this chapter found that farmers were generally positive towards increasing the diversity of trees and shrubs on their farms. However, pollinators were rarely an explicit consideration, and decisions were constrained by multiple socio-economic and socio-cultural factors, including concerns about attracting wildlife, limited land availability, and time and labour constraints. The third data chapter investigated how pollinator communities and plant-pollinator interactions vary with forest proximity, farm-level woody plant diversity, and floral abundance in the same study area in western Kenya. Despite variation in distance to forest and farm level vegetation, we found no clear patterns in pollinator communities or plant-pollinator networks, further highlighting that existing elements in the multifunctional smallholder landscape may provide resources and habitat for wild pollinators. Together, these findings indicate that patterns in pollinator communities in tropical smallholder landscapes are shaped less by proximity to broadly defined natural habitat and more by interactions among fine-scale landscape heterogeneity, farm management, and seasonal dynamics. This highlights the need to move beyond coarse habitat metrics towards socially informed approaches that capture spatial and temporal complexity across landscapes. The thesis concludes by identifying priorities for advancing pollination research and outlining practical recommendations for conservation and land management within tropical smallholder landscapes.<p></p>"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Social and ecological dimensions of supporting wild pollinators in tropical smallholder farms"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Ennia Bosshard (21053186)"],"dc:date":["2026-04-27T00:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["Tropical smallholder farms support food security and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people and collectively shape vast areas of the tropics. In these landscapes, ecosystem services provided by wild insects, such as pollination services, play an important role in sustaining food security and biodiversity conservation. However, much of the research on pollination services to date has been developed in simplified, industrial agricultural systems, and often without consideration of the social contexts that shape land management. My thesis investigates these knowledge gaps by exploring ecological and social dynamics that influence the availability of habitat for wild pollinators in tropical smallholder farming landscapes. The dissertation consists of three data chapters from independent investigations, combining a global systematic review and meta-analysis with social and ecological fieldwork in western Kenya. The first data chapter synthesised evidence from 35 studies to assess the relationship between distance to natural habitat and pollination services in smallholder landscapes across the tropics. The analysis found no consistent relationships between distance to natural habitat and pollination services, with highly variable effect sizes across studies. Heterogeneity in study design, spatial and temporal scales, focal taxa, and reporting of key confounding variables further resulted in low overall certainty of evidence and highlights important methodological limitations in the existing literature. In the second data chapter, I explored the decision-making process of smallholder farmers’ intentions as to whether to diversify the shrubs and trees on their farms. Through surveys with 620 smallholder farmers in western Kenya, this chapter found that farmers were generally positive towards increasing the diversity of trees and shrubs on their farms. However, pollinators were rarely an explicit consideration, and decisions were constrained by multiple socio-economic and socio-cultural factors, including concerns about attracting wildlife, limited land availability, and time and labour constraints. The third data chapter investigated how pollinator communities and plant-pollinator interactions vary with forest proximity, farm-level woody plant diversity, and floral abundance in the same study area in western Kenya. Despite variation in distance to forest and farm level vegetation, we found no clear patterns in pollinator communities or plant-pollinator networks, further highlighting that existing elements in the multifunctional smallholder landscape may provide resources and habitat for wild pollinators. Together, these findings indicate that patterns in pollinator communities in tropical smallholder landscapes are shaped less by proximity to broadly defined natural habitat and more by interactions among fine-scale landscape heterogeneity, farm management, and seasonal dynamics. This highlights the need to move beyond coarse habitat metrics towards socially informed approaches that capture spatial and temporal complexity across landscapes. The thesis concludes by identifying priorities for advancing pollination research and outlining practical recommendations for conservation and land management within tropical smallholder landscapes.<p></p>"],"dc:identifier":["10779/exe.32151685.v1"],"dc:relation":["https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Social_and_ecological_dimensions_of_supporting_wild_pollinators_in_tropical_smallholder_farms/32151685"],"dc:rights":["All rights reserved","Open Access after 2027-11-04"],"dc:subject":["wild pollinators","tropical smallholder farms","agroecology","agroforestry","kenya"],"dc:title":["Social and ecological dimensions of supporting wild pollinators in tropical smallholder farms"],"dc:type":["Text","Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:33:13Z"}