Authors: Pan, Kaixuan; Marshall, Leon;Biesmeijer, Koos;R. de Snoo, Geert;

The interruption of plant-pollinator interactions may threaten global plant diversity, food security, ecosystem stability and human wellbeing. Recent reports of strong declines of both insects and plants seem to point to insect decline as a driver of plant decline. However, it is still unknown whether these trends are linked and to what extent plant declines are related to insect pollination, as plants often produce seeds without the need for insect pollinators. Here we combine 626,229 Dutch vegetation plot data from 1930 to 2017 and plant traits to show that the proportion of obligately insect pollinated plants has declined ~10.4% while obligately wind pollinated plants have increased ~9.6% over the last 87 years. The proportion of facultatively insect pollinated plants has declined ~6.4% while facultatively wind pollinated plants have increased ~9.6%. This proportional change reflects an absolute decline in the number of insect pollinated species and increase in the number of wind pollinated species over time in the Netherlands. In conclusion, Dutch landscapes are losing insect pollinated plant species, which are being replaced by wind pollinated species. Based on our results, we encourage policies to address the conservation of insect pollinators to mitigate the decline of plants.