Historical trends show more declining than increasing species among European pollinators
Abstract
Anthropogenic global change presents a growing threat to insect pollinators. Yet, long-term, continental-scale assessments of their population trends remain limited. Here, we leveraged a curated database of over four million occurrence records, covering 88% of extant bee and hoverfly species in Europe, to assess persistence, richness, and occupancy trends over the past century. Species persistence at the European level was relatively high, with modern records available for 87% of bee and 89% of hoverfly species. Regional richness changes were modest, with declines in the Atlantic and Continental regions for both pollinator groups. Recent increases were observed in the Alpine region for bees, but species richness remained largely stable elsewhere. At the species level, however, a more concerning picture emerged: Most bee species and about half of hoverfly species declined in occupancy. Species traits explained little variation in these trends, although there was a weak tendency for cold-adapted bees to show steeper declines than warm-adapted ones. Genera showing some of the steepest declines include parasitic or dietary specialists, though neither of these traits significantly predicted occupancy trends. Overall, we highlight clear warning signs of species population declines, but with potential recovery opportunities if we take urgent actions to reverse those trends.
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BibTeX
@article{martineznunez2026historical,
title = {{Historical trends show more declining than increasing species among European pollinators}},
author = {Carlos Martínez-Núñez and François Duchenne and Natasha de Manincor and Guillaume Ghisbain and Ante Vujic and Ahlam Sentil and Marija Miličić and Denis Michez and Ignasi Bartomeus},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2600774123},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05850408v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Historical trends show more declining than increasing species among European pollinators
AU - Carlos Martínez-Núñez
AU - François Duchenne
AU - Natasha de Manincor
AU - Guillaume Ghisbain
AU - Ante Vujic
AU - Ahlam Sentil
AU - Marija Miličić
AU - Denis Michez
AU - Ignasi Bartomeus
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/03
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2600774123
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05850408v1
AB - Anthropogenic global change presents a growing threat to insect pollinators. Yet, long-term, continental-scale assessments of their population trends remain limited. Here, we leveraged a curated database of over four million occurrence records, covering 88% of extant bee and hoverfly species in Europe, to assess persistence, richness, and occupancy trends over the past century. Species persistence at the European level was relatively high, with modern records available for 87% of bee and 89% of hoverfly species. Regional richness changes were modest, with declines in the Atlantic and Continental regions for both pollinator groups. Recent increases were observed in the Alpine region for bees, but species richness remained largely stable elsewhere. At the species level, however, a more concerning picture emerged: Most bee species and about half of hoverfly species declined in occupancy. Species traits explained little variation in these trends, although there was a weak tendency for cold-adapted bees to show steeper declines than warm-adapted ones. Genera showing some of the steepest declines include parasitic or dietary specialists, though neither of these traits significantly predicted occupancy trends. Overall, we highlight clear warning signs of species population declines, but with potential recovery opportunities if we take urgent actions to reverse those trends.
SN - 0027-8424
SN - 1091-6490
ER -