Ecological networks reveal how changes in pollinator biodiversity cascade through agroecosystems to shape human nutrition and livelihoods

Speaker: Dr Tom Timberlake, University of York
Series: Zoology Departmental Seminar Series

Biodiversity underpins human health through the ecosystem processes that support food production, nutrition and livelihoods, yet these connections can be difficult to trace. In this talk, I will explore how ecological networks can be used to follow these links from wild species and their interactions, through crops and food systems, to individual people. Drawing on research with smallholder farming communities in western Nepal, I will focus on the role of insect pollinators in supporting people’s nutritional health and household income, showing how ongoing pollinator declines are expected to exacerbate poverty and malnutrition in vulnerable communities. I will also explore the other side of this relationship: how farming families can improve their livelihoods and nutrition by managing and restoring pollination services, drawing on some of the exciting work being led by communities in Nepal. More broadly, the talk will consider how changes in biodiversity can ripple through food systems to affect human nutrition across the world.