...Eliana Correa July ____, 2015 [CLASS] [TEACHER] The Demise of the Honey Bees Honey bees and the other pollinators have been providing humans their invaluable pollinating services. These pollinators have helped produce approximately $19 billion worth of agricultural crops in the United States alone in 2010. (Arnold). The BeeBase, operated by the National Bee Unit (NBU) in England, has been operating since 1991 and was created to set out to protect and sustain the national bee stocks. A new initiative called, Healthy Bees Plan, encourages the 20,000 beekeepers in England and Wales to register and stay in close contact with the NBU. The database will play a key role in allocating the new funds allotted to honey bee protection. (National Bee Unit). Honey bee colonies are collapsing because of colony collapse disorder or CCD. There are many factors that cause CCD, such as parasites, viruses, chemicals, bacteria, and the environment, but many experts disagree on what combination of these factors actually cause CCD. Despite being considered a pest, nuisance, and some may say, dangerous, the bees are still a necessary part of agriculture. As humans, we should respond to their disappearance by helping re-populate the honey bees since many plants rely on them for pollination. Different ways to help re-populate the bees are by planting a diversity of plants around your home to lessen the potential contamination of plants, avoid the use of any pesticides, and lastly, take up bee keeping...
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...Honeybees (Apis mellifera) show consistent behavior when selecting which flowers to forage; in other words, honeybees will forage the same flower species as long as nectar is present and available. However, honeybees are not specialists who always collect nectar from specific flower species. Instead, are generalists; they pick up cues like odor and color from flowers when selecting where to collect pollen and nectar (Backhaus 1993). This means that certain flower colors are quickly learned and recognized by honeybees because of the food resources associated with them (Banschbach 1994). This theory can be traced all the way back to Charles Darwin, who anticipated the idea of predisposition which suggests pollinators can select a food source without any prior experience and that this is a...
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...of Pesticides on Commercial Honeybees and Wild Bees” Abstract: It is a well-known fact that the global population of bees is declining. This is a major concern because bees are the primary pollinators of the world’s crops. Commercial honeybees and wild bees both have significant impacts on the fate of the worlds produce. Without bees, produce would be an impossibility to get because there would be very little to none available. The reasons as to why this is happening have not been completely isolated yet, but scientists are testing multiple factors as to why this could be happening. One of the reasons could be pesticide and insecticide application to crops around the world. Pesticide and insecticide application could be a major contributing factor as to why the bee population is declining. This is very unfortunate because agriculture is expanding throughout the developing and the developed world. Between 1961 and 2006 global agriculture of pollinator dependent crops has increased by 16.7% in the developed world and by 9.4% in the developing world (Brittain & Potts, 2011). With commercial agriculture comes pesticide and insecticide application. Global pesticide application is expected to more than double to 10 million metric tons by 2050 (Brittain & Potts, 2011). This could be a major issue if in fact insecticides are a leading cause of global bee population decline. Neurotoxic insecticides may pose more of a direct threat to honeybees and wild bees than other kinds...
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...Bees Almond butter is a delicious, upscale alternative to peanut butter and we love it. But its price has increased nearly three-fold over the last two years while that of peanut butter has changed very little. The reason for this is surprising: almonds are much more dependent on honeybees for pollination than are peanuts. The California almond crop, by far the world’s largest, used an unbelievable 40 billion honeybees to pollinate it in 2005 and about a third of that number of bees is no longer available (Benjamin and McCallum, 2009). Since 2007, nearly a third of the honeybees in North America, Europe, and South America have died for unknown reasons. How important is this to our lives? A U.S. Department of Agriculture/Cornell University study estimates that honeybees pollinate nearly a third of everything that we eat (beeculture.com, 2000). If these bees disappear, fruits, vegetables, and nuts will go with them, meat production will severely decline, and we will be in very bad shape, indeed. Two significant changes have occurred in the world of honeybees in the United States since the mid1970s: (1) there has been a steady increase in the amount of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) consumed by honeybees, and (2) about one third of the honeybee colonies in the U.S. have “collapsed” and are no longer available. The latter phenomenon is called colony collapse disorder (CCD) (Kaplan, 2009). It must be noted, however, that while these phenomena correlate, correlation can exist without...
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...Henry I. Miller a scientist believes that Neonicotinoids is not bad. In fact, people say it just to ban agricultural chemicals. As an illustration, Miller wrote an article “The Buzz: Six Reasons Not To Worry About The Bees”. Miller mentions that “modern crop protection products such as neonics are actually designed to target harmful pests while, when used according to the instructions on the label, keeping beneficial insects like honeybees as safe as possible”. He as well argues that 98% of neonics are not sprayed on crops at all but they are used as seed treatments. Miller also claims that when the pesticide is applied in a small amount, it becomes diluted and has no impact on the bees. This article was published recently on Aug 24, 2016 on a popular website called the Forbes. The Forbes is a popular magazine company that discusses several industrial, politics, laws and science topics. They are also well-known for their authors to be specialist on what they talk about. However, this article lacked discussing how the exposure of Neonicotinoids affects the bees without eating the...
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...Zabrina Campos M. Lynn Sullivan Environmental Issues September 12, 2013 Saving the Honey Bees How common is it for certain specie to disappear without a trace? Could this be possible? Apparently it is. Since 2006 the Honey bees have become a great deal of worry not just in the US, but around the world. They have begun to disappear without leaving any trace behind, denominated, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). This phenomenon that has been hunting many for a few years has not yet been understood. Honey Bees are an essential part of human survival. Thanks to them we are able to eat every day. Many of the plant’s survival depend on the honey bees since “one third of the world's agricultural production depends on the European honeybee”(Cox-Foster ). They are the ones that can pollinate a certain amount of plants much quicker and easily compared to other insects. There have been many hypotheses concerning the loss of bees in the past years. One suspect that caused the disappearance of honey bees was the vorroa mites. These are parasites greatly responsible for the loss of a large number of bee colonies between 1987 and 2006. However, as the bees were studied there was found many unknown symptoms. This is how a hypothesis was developed stating that something was making bees more fragile. Its immune system was becoming weaker making them suffer different types of infections. However, the numbers of the vorroa mites were not extremely significant as to be the ones killing the bees...
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...According to the film “Silence of the Bees”, honeybees have become essential to our food supply. Humans all over the world rely on the bees and their pollination intensively. The honeybees pollinate about one third of the food that humans consume (Silence of the Bees, 2007). Without the bees humans would only be able to produce and consume wheat, corn, and rice (Silence of the Bees, 2007). Leaving humans without fruit and vegetables. Unfortunately, something has gone wrong and the bees have started to disappear without explanation and without a trace. For example in some regions of China the honeybees were completely killed because of pesticides. Owners of the pear trees were forced to pollinate by hand (Silence of the Bees, 2007). Researchers have tried to figure out what is the cause of their disappearance, but only have gained limited information. So far, they have named this phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) (Cox-Foster & vanEngelsdorp, 2009). One of the symptoms of Colony Collapse Disorder are that the bees become disoriented and are not capable of returning to their hive once they go out to gather pollen (Silence of the Bees, 2007). Another symptom was that the bees started to act abnormal because their technique of communication changed. They did not do their waggle dance anymore to notify the other bees that there was an abundant source of pollen (Silence of the Bees, 2007). Those that were infected with a disease would leave the hive in order to not infect...
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...Part #1 Questions: 1. What kinds of plants are pollinated by honeybees? Typical plants pollinated by honeybees are flowers as well as a large variety of other plants, however, not all. 2. What are some short and long term economic, social, and environmental repercussions of a widespread disappearance of honeybees? An economic effect of a widespread disappearance of honeybees is the loss of profit. If honeybees disappear, crops that depend heavily on pollination like blueberries and apples will suffer as well as the profit made (worth fourteen billion dollars). 3. Are larger or smaller honeybee operations more likely to experience Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)? Larger honeybee operations are more likely to experience Colony Collapse Disorder. 4. Hypothesize possible reasons for Colony Collapse Disorder. Potential causes of Colony Collapse Disorder could be a rapidly changing environment (which the honeybees could not adapt to), not enough plants for pollination (a lack of food), or dangerous pesticides and chemicals used on plants (that could harm bees). Part #2 Questions 1. As a class, list possible causes of CCD that Mark, Dave, and Tanya read about. Possible causes of CCD are newly discovered viruses from pathogens and parasitic infections. In addition, the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), causes honeybees to have a higher susceptibility to parasites. 2. How do Varroa mites and Nosema spores damage honeybee health? What are the disadvantages...
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...By observing from the surveillance cameras, I will record the number of honeybees staying on each group of flowers every two hours. Average number of honeybees will be calculated after the experiments. Note: The color used to spray will be from same brand and have will have pungent smell. Prediction For the experiment in G1, my null hypothesis will be that floral scents of Calliandra Haematocephala do not affect its attraction to honeybees. If my results show that the average number of honeybees staying on different groups of the flowers in G1 are very similar, my null hypothesis will not be rejected. If my results show that there are obvious differences from the average number of honeybees staying on the flowers in each group, my null hypothesis will be rejected. For the experiment in G2, my null hypothesis will be that the red appearance of Calliandra Haematocephala’s flowers does not affect its attraction to honeybees. My results will not reject this null hypothesis, if the average number of honeybees staying on different groups in flowers are very similar. My results will reject the null hypothesis, if the average number of honeybees staying on the flowers in each group are much different from others....
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...of different size, shape, and color. Yet, the one most humans do not think about is the honeybee. A quick Google search of honey bee defines the insect as, “a stinging winged insect that collects nectar and pollen, produces wax and honey, and lives in large communities. The honeybee was domesticated for its honey and usually lives in hives.” While researching information about the honeybee I realized just how helpful and interesting the insect is. However, they can be a huge burden. My goal in this paper is to state accurate information and inform a reader about the unique creature, the honeybee. Honeybees are important to our wold. Not only are they one of the biggest pollinators, they also provide some people with food and a source of income. They live in large colonies called hives. In those hives there are millions of bees, called worker bees. Worker bees are female honeybees that are not sexually developed. It takes approximately twenty days for an egg to hatch. After the first three days of being birthed the egg turns into larvae. They older and mature worker bees take care of the larvae, feeding it royal jelly, pollen, and honey. Royal jelly is the leakage of the bees that provides the larvae with the nutrients they need. The worker bees tend to larvae and forage for food. They forage for three main types of food: honey, propolis, and nectar. Propolis is a sap type mixture that is used for sealing small holes in the honeycombs. They collect propolis form trees, the most...
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...Systemic Pesticides and the Honeybee Population Beekeepers have been experiencing a large decline in their honeybee populations for the past decade at a startling rate. The disappearance of the honeybees has a much larger impact on daily life in the United States as well as around the world than many would believe, as they are cornerstones in a healthy and prosperous ecosystem. The extremely complex yet small honeybee is responsible for a large majority of the food we consume everyday. While there are multiple theories surrounding the disappearance of the bees, the use of systemic pesticides is leading the way as the culprit. The use of systemic pesticides needs to be banned in the United States due to the negative impact they are having on the honeybee population. As the population of the United States continues to grow exponentially annually, so does the need for an increased food supply. Monocultures have been the answer to this need due to the fact that they allow farmers to mass-produce a single item much cheaper and easier than traditional farming in which multiple crops are grown on a single plot of land. There are many possibilities for the types of plants that can be found in a monoculture but typically wheat, corn, and soy are the main monocultures crops in the United States due to the wide use of these plants in countless products on the grocery store shelves. These monocultures have caused the use of pesticides to reach levels never seen before by the agricultural...
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...The mite reproduces in large colonies and lives off the fluids of the honeybees, miticides are gradually encompassing the protection of honeybees and the eradication of the Varroa. Unfortunately, as Benjamin and McCallum describe: “It’s a classic catch 22: don’t use chemicals and risk seeing your bees dying of the varroa infestation (which has claimed millions[of] colonies across the world.); do not use them and risk the chemical build-up damaging the bees in the long term.”. (161). This mite is developing to an equally as great concern to the population of honeybees as the previously mentioned adversaries, only appearing a few centuries ago and already being highly supported throughout the beekeeping industry. The origin of this parasitic mite has been recorded in something of an ecological horror movie, Jacobsen explains: “The mite came from the Far East, where it has always parasitized Apis cerana (the Asian honeybee). But sometime in the twentieth century it made the leap to Apis mellifera, [the Western honeybee].” (Jacobsen, 58). The impact was immensely...
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...too.But scientist increasingly believe several interacting factors from diseases carrying parasites to poor nutrition to pesticides and is responsible for the mass die off. For instance, the report says studies have shown that exposure to even non-fatal levels of neonicotinoids may make bees more susceptible to disease; and as agriculture becomes more industrial and natural habitats that formerly bordered farmland are destroyed, bees are being starved of the food they need to help produce food for humans. “ undernourished or malnourished bees appear to be more susceptible to pathogens, parasites, and other stressors, including toxins. Theory: No BEES, No Crops In 2013, some bad news had been brought to people’s attention. Each year honeybees from across the country make their way to California, which grows 80...
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...Frisch began exploring an insect communication system called, “the dance of the honeybee”. Bees does the “waggle dance” to communicate the source of food to rest of the hive and to convey how far the food source is from the hive. This insect communication system definitely exhibits interchangeability and discreteness. The honeybees exhibit the feature of interchangeability because each bee can both send messages and comprehend the messages of the other bees. The bees send messages of where the food source is by dancing and the other comprehend the messages of the dancing bees to understand the location of a rich food source. Obviously, they have the ability to both send and receive messages. The honeybees also exhibit the feature of discreteness. The waggle dance of the honeybees itself is a large, complex message and it can be broken down into smaller, discrete components. For example, this dance not only conveys where the food source is, it can be broken down into different dances to convey different messages (its richness and type of food available) to the rest of the hive. Not all honeybees use the exact same set of dance to communicate; different honeybees set different tempo and different angle to convey different distances and direction of the food source. Another animal communication system is the song of the humpback whales. This system definitely exhibits cultural transmission. During the breeding season, the male whales do the singing and the others learned the whale...
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...the terrifying monsters that makes one carry an epi pen? Often the first thoughts are negative, but humans fail to realize how significant the honey bees are as a species. People reap benefits from them spanning from agricultural to medical, yet many still do not know how intricate their behaviors are, or how much they influence a human’s life, or even how they make honey. For being such a significant figure in many fields, why is it that humans know so little relating to these remarkable insects? A way to change this lack of knowledge is through educating oneself on the facts of honeybees, which can then stem a deeper appreciation...
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