The death of honeybees in the world should certainly be a cause of concern for governments, scientists, ecologists, and consumers of honey. The extinction of honeybees might have serious negative effects on the livelihoods of populations that depend on honey cultivation for food and income. Moreover, honey has healing properties, especially for cold and flu, and, therefore, a reduction in its supply could be detrimental to people's health. The death of honeybees will cause an imbalance in the ecosystem because flowering plants depend on the bees for pollination (Quarles, 2008, p.1). In particular, honey bees pollinate one-third of flowering crops (ibid). David Hackenberg was one of the first beekeepers, who noticed such mysterious extinction of honey bees and, moreover, he lost more than 2500 of his hives (Stokstad, pp. 970-972). Scientists called this mysterious phenomenon colony collapse disorder (CCD) (Quarles, 2008, p. 3). Such mysterious vanishing of honey bees was noticed in a number of states in America and some European countries such as Poland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland (Schacker, 2008, pp. 11-18). For example, in 2006 75% of bee’s colonies disappeared in Pennsylvania (Quarles, 2008, p. 3). Therefore, given the potential harm that the extinction of honeybees could cause, it is vital to identify the reasons why bees are dying in large numbers in order to take appropriate measures. Thus, this paper will evaluate two problems, which negatively affect honey bees and conclude that none of them were the main reasons for colony collapse disorder.
According to Stokstad (2007, pp. 970-972), one of the possible reasons of CCD is the varroa mites, which have been the main problem for beekeepers the last 20 years. Before...
... middle of paper ...
... and diseases. Scientific and Technical Review of the Office International des
Epizooties, 27(2), 499-510.
Neumann, P. and Carreck, N.L. (2010). Honey bee colony losses. Journal of Apicultural
Research, 49(1), 1-6.
Quarles, W. (2008). Pesticides and honey bee colony collapse disorder. The IPM
Practioner, 30(9-10), 1-16.
Schacker, M. (2008). A spring without bees: how colony collapse disorder has endangered
our food supply.1sted. New York, the USA: The Lyons Press.
Sharma, V.P. and Kumar, N.R. (2010, May 25). Changes in honeybee behavior and biology
under the influence of cellphone radiations. Current Science, 98(10), 1376-1378.
Stokstad, E. (2007, May 18). The case of empty hives. Science, 316(5827), 970-972.
Retrieved May 19, 2007, from www.sciencemag.org
Albert Einstein once said, “The day bees vanish from earth… man will go not long after”. Not many people are aware, but honey bees are slowly disappearing all over the world. In 2016 the honey bees’ cousin, the Hawaiian yellow-faced bees were classified as endangered. It will not be long until the honey bee joins them at their current disappearing rate. Honey bees pollinate more than just flowers, they pollinate about a third of the world’s consumable crops. Without these tiny heroes the world would consist of a small amount of fruits and vegetables. There has not been common insight to the world about the disappearance, though many activists are fighting to save the bees. “There were nearly 3.5 million honeybee colonies in 1989…the number
From around the year 2006, many bee farmers in the U.S.A and some parts of Europe started reporting sharp declines in their bee stocks. The reason for this declining numbers was not known and therefore scientists named it colony collapse disorder (CCD). Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a not a very old phenomena and it became popular when large number of bee colonies started disappearing. The disappearing was mysterious since no dead bees were found in or around the beehives after a colony’s number was reported to have gone down or vanished. This prompted a lot of study and investigations to uncover the mystery and to establish possible remedies. Among the many reasons for the causes of the CCD was the use of harmful and dangerous pesticides. Timbrell (2002) provides a solid foundation on the effects of toxins in the body of animals with an aim of providing a scientific solution towards the problem. This paper focuses its study on these pesticides with an aim of establishing the effects of the toxins found in the insecticides that could be affecting the bees.
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.
Over time, many bees have been disappearing and their population has been decreasing drastically. These ubiquitous species are mostly known to produce honey, however they do much more than that. Bees are an essential part of the environment and play a huge role in agriculture. They pollinate flowers and about ⅓ of the food we eat depends on bee pollination. Not only humans depend on bees too, but animals do too,and we depend on most of those animals. 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.
“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.”
United States. Department of Agriculture. Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder. Washington D.C.:, 2013. Web. http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572.
The Apis Mellifera, or honey bee, have survived on this planet for fifty million years. This species of bee is responsible for pollinating flowers, grass, trees and crops around the world. Much of the food we eat is dependent on honey bees for pollination. Our ecosystem depends on the survival of the honey bee. Colonies of honeybees have been disappearing at an alarming rate around the world due to parasites, viral and bacterial diseases, and the introduction of pesticides and herbicides. Over the past six years, on average, 30 percent of all the honey bee colonies in the U.S. died off over the winter of 2012(NPR/TED). If this trend continues to spiral downward, honey bees will disappear from the world. We must understand the importance of the Honey bee and change our environmental practices in order to sustain this vital insect.
Every night at the dinner table people do not realize that, “One out of every three mouthfuls of food in the American diet is, in some way, a product of honeybee pollination” (Zissu, Alexandra par 1). Almost one hundred percent of our planets fruit, vegetables, and nuts are pollinated from honeybees. If this is the case, that means the collapse in honeybees predict for the future of the worlds ecosystem. Without honeybees
The first reports of a massive number of bees dying off were reported in the 1990’s, but the disappearances did not gain much attention until the late 2000’s. Scientists were baffled as a large number of seemingly healthy bees would abandon their hives and never return. The issue of the disappearing bees became so severe that one third of all the honeybee colonies in the United States were lost, and scientists still could not pinpoint an exact cause for the deaths of so many bees, however they were able to come up with a few possible theories. Deeming the decrease in bees the Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD for short, researchers believed that the mass disappearance could have been caused by a number of interwoven factors, one of which is global warming. Changing climates and weather patterns due to global warming causes certain species of flowers to bloom either earlier or later than usual, which means that bees are not always provided with the pollen and nectar they desire when they emerge from hibernation, and in addition to this, global warming has been known to cause harsh winters and extremely hot summers which adds stress to the honey bee’s life (Bee Facts).
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.
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.
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 to whole ecosystems. Therefore, the declining numbers of pollinators, particularly bees, are a cause of concern because of the environmental knock-on effects. High declines in adult bee numbers in some colonies have been reported and this decline is known as colony collapse disorder6. These declines are higher than normal and can go unnoticed by bee keepers because the bees do not generally die in the nest so the decrease is not immediately obvious. The problem addressed in this paper will be the decline of bees and the effects this decline has on the environment. The solutions proposed for this problem are increasing research, managing farming and spreading awareness. It is important to conserve the bee populations before the problem of decreasing pollinator numbers becomes too great to fix.
“No bees, no honey; no work, no money.” Bees are becoming an endangered species due to colony collapse disorder, a colony no longer existing due to a combination of deadly factors. Bees are very important in our lives from making food cheaper to making honey-added in many medicines, foods, and other products. There are a few steps we can take in order to save our honeybees.
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
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.