# Crop pollination interpretation

**URL:** <https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/crop-pollination-interpretation/4325>\
**Category:** Software Support\
**Tags:** pollination\
**Created:** [December 5, 2023, 8:22am UTC](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/crop-pollination-interpretation/4325 "2023-12-05T08:22:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![matteoriva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@matteoriva](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/u/matteoriva)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 8:22am UTC](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/crop-pollination-interpretation/4325/1 "2023-12-05T08:22:35Z")

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I would simply like to know how to interpret the pollinator abundance. What is a high value for pollinator abundance? What is a low value? I need to compare this information with a corresponding demand. I understand InVEST provides an index, but it would still be crucial to understand how to interpret it. Are the values for pollinators abundance ranging from 0 to 1?

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**Author:** ![swolny](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/swolny/32/181_2.png) [@swolny](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/u/swolny)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 3:55pm UTC](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/crop-pollination-interpretation/4325/2 "2023-12-05T15:55:00Z")

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Hi @matteoriva -

The [User Guide](https://storage.googleapis.com/releases.naturalcapitalproject.org/invest-userguide/latest/en/croppollination.html#pollinator-supply-and-abundance) says this:

> Pollinator supply is an indicator of where pollinators originate from on the landscape. Pollinator abundance indicates where pollinators are active on the landscape. Pollinator abundance depends on the floral resources that attract pollinators to a cell, and the supply of pollinators that can access that cell.

So high values of pollinator abundance appear in places that have a combination of high levels of floral resources, and high levels of nearby pollinator nesting sites.

I would assume that as an “index”, the results should be values between 0 and 1, but the User Guide does not explicitly say that for these outputs. Can anyone at NatCap confirm? We should update the User Guide with this information.

~ Stacie

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**Author:** ![jdouglass](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/jdouglass/32/9_2.png) [@jdouglass](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/u/jdouglass)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 10:21pm UTC](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/crop-pollination-interpretation/4325/3 "2023-12-05T22:21:49Z")

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> [@swolny](#):
>
> I would assume that as an “index”, the results should be values between 0 and 1, but the User Guide does not explicitly say that for these outputs. Can anyone at NatCap confirm? We should update the User Guide with this information.

I believe this is correct, and everything in the source code is written to assume that the values are between [0-1]. Even the outputs are all marked as being `ratio`s, although I’m not sure why that’s not showing up in the UG build right now for the outputs as it is for the inputs. So there might only need to be a programmatic change to how we’re building the UG and not a text-editing intervention.

James

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/uploads/naturalcapitalproject/original/2X/8/8d95591aa074da87ea0fdd61ca47c1c3c0588aa7.png) [@system](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 10:22pm UTC](https://community.naturalcapitalalliance.org/t/crop-pollination-interpretation/4325/4 "2024-03-04T22:22:01Z")

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Closed on March 4, 2024, 10:22pm UTC

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