Insects are some of the most important creatures in our world. They play a very large role in many tasks that are vital to human surviva,l like pollinating and effective decomposing. Insects have impacted science, environment, human development, and food supply in a variety of ways. Insect pollination is one of the primary beneficial functions of insects on human development.
Insect pollination as we all know, is the process that enables reproduction and fertilization by the transfer of pollen performed by insects. Insects are some of the oldest pollinators of plants. Pollinating insects date back to 140 million years ago. Since then, due to how effective insect pollinators are, these flowering plants have become the major group of terrestrial vascular plants. Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms, have imperative roles within our ecosystems, both natural and agricultural. For instance, insects provide food, fiber and shelter for wildlife and humankind alike (2007). It is commonly know that in humans, high levels of fruit and vegetable consumption are associated with decreased risk of chronic disease (Calderone 2012). Aside from these important roles, plants have also been considered as a viable option for fuel sources (Calderone 2012). There are around 300,00 species of flowering plants in the world and without pollination, the reproductive process would be very difficult since pollination causes the production of seeds (Calderone 2012). Of the 300,000 plant species worldwide, a little over 3,000 of these plants have been used as a source of food. Close to 300 of these species are grown around the world today and only 12 of these plants make up about 90 percent of the food sources in our world. These 12 include the grains...
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...e vectors has been very detrimental to our society and its development. All in all, I feel that insects have definitely positively affected our human development and society.
Works Cited
Calderone NW (2012) Insect Pollinated Crops, Insect Pollinators and US Agriculture: Trend Analysis of Aggregate Data for the Period 1992–2009. PLoS ONE 7(5): e37235. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0037235
Committee on the Status of Pollinators in North America NRC (2007) Status of pollinators in North America. National Academies Press. Washington, D.C.
THURSTON, H. D.
1969. TROPICAL AGRICULTURE- A KEY TO THE WORLD FOOD CRISIS. Bioscience 19: 29-34.
GUIDRY, N. P.
1964. GRAPHIC SUMMARY OF WORLD AGRICULTURE. U. S. Dept. Agr. Misc. Pub. 705, 64 pp.
McGregor, S.E. (1976). Insect Pollination Of Cultivated Crop Plants. 849.
Meyer, John. (2008). A Class of Distinction.
Humans sometimes get the idea that we are superior to other species and even to other humans. We rarely think about how even the smallest things in our life make the biggest impact and that we,ourselves, are relied on by other animals. We also assume that something so annoying can not possibly be interesting or beneficial to use in anyway. Richard Conniff’s essay “Why God Created Flies” uses various biological and scientific evidence and fact to prove his point that everything in this world affects one another no matter how much we like it or not and that even the smallest creatures have such an awe to them. His essay also points out of human’s dislike of a species can turn around and just hurt us.
Even our native plants that all life relies on, could now be at risk. To understand the possible issues we are facing; firstly, we must understand how plants work. Angiosperm is the type of plant most used in agricultural fields. A BBC video explains that angiosperms are the only organism that can capture pure-energy from the sun, and pump it out as energy-giving nectar, protein-enriched pollen and color-coded fruit into the food chain. Also, they, amazingly, can transpire water into our atmosphere, which aids in balancing of our global climate (“The Power of Flowers: How to Grow a Planet”). Also, Jonathan Drori, a speaker on TedTalks, shares the unique relationship that insects and plants have. Angiosperms have slowly adapted, taking thousands of years of DNA evolution, to attract specific insects to do a specific, pollination job in a ultraviolet world. Some of these modifications range in the transformation of temperature which are recorded as high as 115 degree Fahrenheit, colors that are invisible to us containing an encoded landing strips to guide it 's visitor, textures for functionality, smell/odor that lure the needed species, and several behaviors of mimicry that would capture any student 's interest. Plants are bizarre, to say the least. Reproduction and survival are the plants ' sole purpose in life, which is done by genetic adaptation to the environment. (“The Beautiful Tricks of Flowers”). We are only scratching the surface on how angiosperm plants work, and tampering with their genetics would be unwise at this point in
People from all over the world, from every walk of life, regardless of color, age, gender or religious beliefs all have one thing in common, that is to consume food in order to survive. Many places around the world have food scares yet America has access to a lavish selection of crops to choose from. The most nutritious part of any human’s diet is a result of insect pollination. In such manner, pesticide use is causing honey bee colony collapse disorder putting their existence in grave danger and posing major food source shortages.
Think for a moment of a world without bees; a world without our buzzing friend. They might look like they barely do much to help our ecosystem. However, bees are a vital part of our agriculture and this makes it vital that we keep them around. The bee population decline in recent years is troubling for both us and our little friends. As their friends, we must do all we can in order to ensure their survival which in turn will ensure our own.
H.R. 3040 aim to alleviate the decline in the pollinator population in North America by protecting and ensuring the viability of native bees and other pollinators. Economically, an evaluation of potential success of H.R. 3040 focuses on direct public action, market efficiency, and how negative productive externalities are affecting the market.
Pollen is the male reproductive cell of the flowering plants. It is fine to coarse powder containing the micro-gametophytes of seed plants, which produces the male gametes (sperm cells). It contains high concentration of reducing sugars, essential amino acids, unsaturated/saturated fatty acids, minerals Zn, Cu, Fe and high K/Na ratio and significant quantities of the several vitamins. The amount of these nutritional relevant components is largely dependent on the biological source of the pollen (Campos & Bogdanov, 2010)
As useful as their tongue is for collecting nectar it is useless in capturing insects hidden inside flowers, even though insects do provide most of the protein...
The year is 2200 and the world has been officially declared as being devoid of all insect life. A combination of extreme climate change, chemical warfare and general environmental degradation has resulted in a mass die out of the entire insect population. Unsurprisingly this has had a major effect on all other forms of life ranging from aquatic to terrestrial. Some species have experienced a significant decline in population size and others have had to completely adapt new behaviors to survive. However, there are some that have largely benefitted from this insect free world.
Our livestock depend on bee-pollinated plants like grain. Poorly pollinated plants produce fewer fruits and seeds, leading to higher prices (New Agriculturist, n.d.). Some crops are entirely dependent on pollinators such as almonds and others are 90 percent dependent on blueberries and cherries (ABF, 2015). Bees give us honey and we use this honey in food, shampoo, and moisturizers (Mercola, 2015). Bees pollinate 70 out of our 100 major crops; that includes apples, cucumbers, pumpkins, and many more.
The pesticides used on flowers and other factors that have contributed to the decrease in the population of bees need to be stopped before this problem goes too far out of reach. This decrease can only be described as Colony Collapse Disorder and it will have severe consequences if it is not controlled. However, we are not the only ones that depend on them but in fact most animals depend on them too. Bees cross-pollinate flowers and plants that are eaten by farm and wild animals.
Others include birds, butterflies, and the wind; however, honey bees, by far, are the best at pollinating plants. Collecting pollen is their whole life’s purpose, according to Michigan State University’s article, “Native Plants and Ecosystem Services”. Over one hundred forty three million acres of plants in America are sprayed with a bee-killing insecticide that has been banned in Europe by the European Food Safety Authority (Sarich). Promote ecological farming, and ban all bee-harming pesticides.
The Bee Informed Team. "Winter Loss Survey 2012 – 2013: Preliminary Results."Bee Informed Partnership. National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, 2 May 2013. Web.
Pollinators are very important to the environment because many plant species rely on reproduction to be carried out by pollination1. Bees are dependent on plants for pollen and nectar and in return, are the most common pollinator of plant species and around 90 percent of plants require pollination by an animal7. Bees are used in farming, both for pollinating crops and for producing honey, and the estimated value of bees to the United Kingdom is £400 million per year9. Plants are the primary producers in many food webs and, as so many are dependent on pollination in order to reproduce, a decline in pollinators would have a detrimental effect on whole ecosystems. Therefore, the declining numbers of pollinators, particularly bees, are a cause of concern because of the environmental knock-on effects.
Insects, instead of human, will succeed in the competition for survival due to their highly
Seventh, in some groups of insects, truly social behavior has evolved. Social behavior will allow a large population to survive through difficult periods via cooperation in food gathering, food storage, temperature control, and colony