The lives of humans and honeybees have been intertwined for millennia. For at least 8,000 years, humans have sought honey for applications in disciplines ranging from medicine to the culinary arts. But while humans love honey, honeybees provide a much more valuable service: pollination. As the world’s most prolific pollinator, honeybees are essential to the reproduction of many plant species, which in turn benefits other animals and plants. In fact, humans heavily rely on honeybees to pollinate our own food source, a service that is worth billions of dollars a year. Unfortunately, the honeybee population is in a severe and prolonged decline, often in the form of colony collapse disorder, in which entire colonies are seemingly abandoned by adult bees overnight. Honeybees are an indispensable component of modern agriculture, and a failure to discern and address the many causes of honeybee population decline – both manmade and natural – could have disastrous consequences for the environment and human society.
Pollination Basics
Flowering plants have two main reproductive parts; the male part is called the stamen and produces pollen, while the female part is called the pistil. For pollination to occur, the pollen must be transferred from the stamen to the pistil. This transfer can occasionally be caused by wind, but it is most often facilitated by animals called pollinators. Pollinators do not intentionally set out to fertilize flowers; rather, they unintentionally spread pollen while roaming from plant to plant in search of food. There are many different species – including birds, butterflies, and bats – that act as pollinators, and many of these species are also suffering declines in population. However, honeybees are the most pr...
... middle of paper ...
...Honey bees not native to North America. Retrieved from http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/agcom/newscolumns/archives/OSL/1999/November/111199OSL.html
United States Department of Agriculture. (2014). Agriculture secretary announces $3 million for a new program to improve pollinator health. Retrieved from http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2014/02/0028.xml&contentidonly=true
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Colony collapse disorder: European bans on neonicotinoid pesticides. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/intheworks/ccd-european-ban.html
Watanabe, M. E. (2014). Pollinators at risk. BioScience, 64(1), 5-10.
World Food Programme. (2013). Comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis (CFSVA): Uganda. Retrieved from http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp256989.pdf
It is not unusual for bees to die or colonies to be lost, but the nature and extent reported in the year 2006 was alarming. Statistics gathered in the United States alone show that 50-90% of the bees have been lost so far, due to this scientific phenomenon (Cox-Foster et al., 2007, p. 284). Honeybees play a very major role in the pollination of plants and therefore these huge losses have become a serious concern. There are many reasons that have been floated and acclaimed to be behind CCD and they include pesticides, parasites, electromagnetic radiation, malnutrition, climatic changes, and urban sprawl, among many others.... ...
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.
To most, the honeybee can be an annoying insect that has a powerful sting. Yet, the honeybee is so much more than just another insect. The honeybee is arguably the most vital component in the development of our food crops. With roughly 90 percent of our food crops dependent on the pollination of our honeybees, our food system, agricultural development, and diet rest on the work and well being of these buzzing insects. Unfortunately, since 2006 there has been a major decline in the population of honeybees, and has gotten progressively worse because of colony collapse disorder. The first reported increase of CCD was documented in November 2006 in Florida. By February 2007, several states began reporting major losses associated with CCD, ranging from 30% to 90%. A little over a half decade later in 2012 the attention paid towards CCD has grown substantially with more research being done as CCD continues to get worse. The main culprit for CCD, as research has suggested, is the use of pesticides on our food crops. With major corporations such as Bayer making millions and millions of dollars in profit each year in the distribution of pesticides, it is no wonder that nothing is being done to stop this practice despite evidence linking the use of pesticides and the drastic deterioration of the health of honeybees. With the continuation of the use of deadly pesticides and the vital role bees play in the pollination and development of our food crops, both the environment and our economy will be effected directly and face the potential for catastrophic results.
“If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.” This statement questionably from the brilliant scientist Albert Einstein may evidently be right. In my class we were asked to pick an issue to research about, so I chose colony collapse disorder because I believe this an overlooked epidemic. UDSA reported “Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a serious problem threatening the health of honey bees and the economic stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the United States. Despite a number of claims in the general and scientific media, a cause or causes of CCD have not been identified by researchers.”
All around the world honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate, according to the documentary Vanishing of the Honeybees. This film features two commercial bee keepers and their fight to preserve their bee numbers. David Hackenburg was the first commercial bee keeper to go public the bee population was decreasing. Approximately two billions bees have vanished and nobody knows the reason why. Honeybees are used all across America to help pollinate monoculture crops like broccoli, watermelon, cherries, and other produce. Without the honeybees the price for fresh and local produce would be too much money. According, to this film commercial bee keeper’s help fifteen billion dollars of food get pollinated by commercial
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.
As you bite into a juicy peach and enjoy its sweet satisfying taste, the last thing you think of are the bumble bees that helped to pollinate it. Every day, around the world, produce farmers and consumers depend upon the honey bee as a pollinater. Within the last decade however, there has been major decline in the honey bee population. Why has this been happening, and how does this affect the farmers that provide food for the world?
When the bees land in a flower, some pollen gets stuck on their hairy bodies. So when they go to the next flower some of this pollen rubs off on the other flower which pollinates the plant. This process benefits both, the flower and bee, because the flower gets to reproduce and the bee gets to eat. Bees do not purposely pollinate the flower, they actually want to take the nectar back
The disappearance of honey bees is baffling scientists everywhere. Although most people see bees as useless annoying insects, they play an important role in the eco-system. Without bees, agricultural business would cease to exist, so it is vital that bees are saved. Currently, about one-third of the honey bees on the United states have disappeared. It seems that within a few days of having a good, healthy colony of bees, most of the adult population disappears. They can't even find any bodies near the hive. Scientists nicknamed this as CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder). Bees have been disappearing all over the globe. Countries such as Portugal, Poland, Central America, and South America have all reported cases of the phenomenon. When bees get sick, they sacrifice themselves and leave the colony to die to lessen possibility of spreading the disease or affliction to the rest of the hive. What is unique about CCD though, is the sheer number of bees leaving the hive.
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.
The reproduction of some species of the plant depend directly of the polarization which is made by the bees and other insect. For example, canola is pollinated by bees as a result canola produce a measurably higher yield. Orange, apple, and other plants are pollinated too, that is why farmer regard bees as their most productive partnerships. Bees, maintain the species diversities. In fact, bees play an
In 2007 the population of bees continued to decline by 30-70% of loss in some regions. Pesticides were a primary suspect of what started to become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Colony
The relationships between plants and pollinators play a key role in our ecosystems. Pollinators are animals, such as bees, butterflies, moths, bats, flies, wasps, and birds, that transfer pollen from one flower to another. Pollination is the movement of pollen to the male or female part of the plant. This leads to fertilization and the production of seeds and flowers. They maintain and establish ecosystems. “Pollinators are an integral part of our environment and our agricultural systems; they are important in 35% of global crop production” (NCRS 2013). “Pollinator declines can result in loss of pollination services which have important negative ecological and economic impacts that could significantly affect the maintenance of wild plant diversity,
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...
Over the past decade bee populations have been dropping drastically. A 40% loss of honeybees happened in the U.S. and U.K. lose 45% of its commercial honeybee since 2010. This is a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which worker bees from a beehive abruptly disappear in a short time. These data are definitely not meaningless since bees are a crucial part of the reproductive cycle of many foods. The impact bees have on the agriculture and the environment is far more crucial than we may think. Crops rely on bees to assist their reproduction and bring them life. Bees are renowned in facilitating pollination for most plant life, including over 100 different vegetable and fruit crops. Without bees, there would be a huge decrease in pollination, which later result in reduce in plant growth and food supplies. On the other hand, without the pollination progressed with the assistance from bees, the types of flowers According to Dr. Albert Einstein, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination…no more men”. That’s why bees’ extinction affects people more than we ever think, and could even forebode the doom day of human race.