In a recent research manuscript published in the Ecological Solutions and Evidence journal, Safeguard researchers Ciara Dwyer, Yann Clough and Henrik Smith of Lund University (ULUND) present a systematic map methodology that will collate and catalogue relevant tools relating to insect pollinators and/or pollination in agricultural landscapes.
The study aims to address the need for a comprehensive list of available tools and their usability for decision-making purposes that have been developed to better understand and mitigate the decline of insect pollinators. Such a list will increase the knowledge about what tools have been designed, their commonalities and their suitability for different decision contexts, ensuring the effectiveness of pollinator-friendly management and conservation actions.
The study will involve searches in bibliographic databases like 'Web of Science Core Collection' and 'Scopus,' coupled with manual searches of grey literature using web-based engines such as Google Scholar and ProQuest, and websites. Once the data is collected and duplicates are removed, the search results will be screened sequentially based on predetermined eligibility criteria, including title, abstract, and full text. The researchers will proceed to evaluate the usability of these tools across three key categories: the tool itself, the user, and the user context.
The systematic map will be disseminated among researchers engaged in transdisciplinary research, developers of pollinator tools, as well as advisers and practitioners engaging, or interested in engaging, in action for pollinators and pollination services.
Photo: Figure 1. from the publication: Conceptual diagram of the methodology of the systematic map: primary question to explore, the population, the metadata and the mapping of the usability of the tools.