What evidence exists on the use of pollinator tools in agricultural landscapes: A systematic map protocol

Abstract

Abstract The widespread decline of insect pollinators poses a conservation concern and threatens both the pollination of wild plants and crops. Primary drivers of pollinator decline are habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, which to a large extent result from agricultural intensification. Numerous tools have been developed to aid decision‐making relating to insect pollinators and pollination in agricultural landscapes. These tools provide valuable information for understanding the drivers of insect population changes in agricultural areas and projecting future population trends in response to various actions. However, there is currently no comprehensive list of available tools, and their usability (ease of use and acceptability for conducting tasks) for decision‐making purposes. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand what tools have been designed, their commonalities and their suitability for different decision context, to ensure the effectiveness of pollinator‐friendly management and conservation actions. In this study, we present a systematic map methodology that will collate and catalogue relevant tools relating to insect pollinators and/or pollination in agricultural landscapes. We will conduct searches in bibliographic databases such as ‘Web of Science Core Collection’ and ‘Scopus’ using a tested search string. Additionally, we will manually search grey literature using web‐based engines (Google Scholar and ProQuest) and websites. After removing duplicates, the search results will be screened sequentially based on predetermined eligibility criteria, including title, abstract, and full text. The extracted data will provide metadata for mapping the usability of the tools, utilising descriptive tables, statistics and figures. Usability will be assessed across three categories: the tool itself, the user and the user‐context. The results from this mapping exercise can support researchers in synthesising progress in terms of pollinator‐related tools, and direct research and development efforts to bridge the identified gaps and shortcomings. It will also have significant implications for managers, stakeholders and policymakers, by providing guidance on existing tools and supporting informed tool choices.

Keywords

• agriculture
• assessment
• insect
• manager
• map
• model