Post by account_disabled on Feb 25, 2024 4:31:47 GMT -5
The bees are dying
A new paper shows how the lifespan of adult bees appears to have been reduced by almost percent over the past years. The European Red List of Bees suggests that almost one in ten wild bees face extinction. Imagine how we would react if human lifespan was reduced by half. The equivalent would be if the average woman in the UK lived to be rather than
Our future is intertwined with bees. Without bees and other pollinators , we cannot grow most of the crops we depend on for food.
This research could help explain the high levels of bee colony deaths around the world over recent decades. Bee deaths were particularly severe in the U.S. in the winter of -, when some commercial beekeepers lost percent of their colonies.
Unexplained high rates of bee colony deaths have also been reported in Canada, Australia, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Finland and Poland. In the cold winter of -, per cent of bee colonies in the UK died.
years of data
The authors, Anthony Nearman and Dennis van Engelsdorp of the University of Maryland, used mathematical models to show that a shorter lifespan of bees could lead to mass colony die-offs. According to their study, since , the lifespan of bees in the US has dropped from an average of days to just days.
The aut C Level Executive List hors studied worker bees taken from hives and kept in cages, not wild bees, which may have affected their results. But if not, something really worrying is going on.
The authors believe that modern bees may be suffering from a higher prevalence of diseases such as deformed wing virus , which has become more common since its discovery years ago due to the global spread of its vector, the varroa mite . Modern bees can be weakened by new generations of pesticides that did not exist years ago.
The pollen that bees feed to their larvae is often contaminated with pesticides. This could make matters worse because bees exposed to low doses of a group of highly toxic pesticides called neonicotinoids have reduced resistance to disease .
Another explanation the authors offer is that the bees' genes may have changed. The lifespan of bees is linked to their genes . Artificial (by beekeepers) or natural selection can favor bees with shorter lifespans. Scientists are seeing this happen in other species. For example, cod now mature earlier and when they are smaller because overfishing means the fish rarely survive long enough to grow.
Perhaps stressors in the modern world, such as pesticides and disease, mean that bees rarely survive for long. Therefore, its evolution could favor a fast lifestyle and young death.
everyone's problem
Bees already face many pressures on their survival. A separate study from the University of Bristol, published in November , found that fertilizers are altering the electric field of plants, which is changing the way bees perceive flowers. They keep them away from visiting flowers. And bee habitat is disappearing. Since the s, per cent of wildflower meadows have been lost in the UK as farming has intensified.
Fascinating as it is, this new study raises more questions than it answers (as good science often does). The data is based on groups of worker bees kept in cages. This method is often used to study the effects of stressors (such as pesticides) on bees.
In these types of experiments, researchers typically establish control groups simultaneously and under identical conditions. Nearman and van Engelsdorp used historical data from control groups in many of these studies conducted in the US since As the authors acknowledge, this is a weakness in their report.
They can't guarantee that lab conditions have remained the same since Perhaps older studies tended to use wooden cages and modern ones use plastic. Cage sizes can become smaller or larger. Airflow in modern incubators can now be faster or slower. Such details are rarely noticed. Anything that has changed in the last years could explain the reduction in longevity.
It won't be easy for scientists to unravel the study's findings. But if we could find historical data on wild bee longevity from previous decades, we could compare it to measurements from the world today. This would help scientists rule out the possibility that the study results were affected by laboratory conditions.
Reducing the lifespan of bees means reduced pollination. Bees and other pollinating insects are essential for a good harvest of percent of the crops we grow around the world. They also pollinate about percent of all wild plants . All bee species face similar challenges to honey bees, but we don't know if their lifespans have changed. If bees really live shorter lives in the wild, we need to know why.
A new paper shows how the lifespan of adult bees appears to have been reduced by almost percent over the past years. The European Red List of Bees suggests that almost one in ten wild bees face extinction. Imagine how we would react if human lifespan was reduced by half. The equivalent would be if the average woman in the UK lived to be rather than
Our future is intertwined with bees. Without bees and other pollinators , we cannot grow most of the crops we depend on for food.
This research could help explain the high levels of bee colony deaths around the world over recent decades. Bee deaths were particularly severe in the U.S. in the winter of -, when some commercial beekeepers lost percent of their colonies.
Unexplained high rates of bee colony deaths have also been reported in Canada, Australia, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Finland and Poland. In the cold winter of -, per cent of bee colonies in the UK died.
years of data
The authors, Anthony Nearman and Dennis van Engelsdorp of the University of Maryland, used mathematical models to show that a shorter lifespan of bees could lead to mass colony die-offs. According to their study, since , the lifespan of bees in the US has dropped from an average of days to just days.
The aut C Level Executive List hors studied worker bees taken from hives and kept in cages, not wild bees, which may have affected their results. But if not, something really worrying is going on.
The authors believe that modern bees may be suffering from a higher prevalence of diseases such as deformed wing virus , which has become more common since its discovery years ago due to the global spread of its vector, the varroa mite . Modern bees can be weakened by new generations of pesticides that did not exist years ago.
The pollen that bees feed to their larvae is often contaminated with pesticides. This could make matters worse because bees exposed to low doses of a group of highly toxic pesticides called neonicotinoids have reduced resistance to disease .
Another explanation the authors offer is that the bees' genes may have changed. The lifespan of bees is linked to their genes . Artificial (by beekeepers) or natural selection can favor bees with shorter lifespans. Scientists are seeing this happen in other species. For example, cod now mature earlier and when they are smaller because overfishing means the fish rarely survive long enough to grow.
Perhaps stressors in the modern world, such as pesticides and disease, mean that bees rarely survive for long. Therefore, its evolution could favor a fast lifestyle and young death.
everyone's problem
Bees already face many pressures on their survival. A separate study from the University of Bristol, published in November , found that fertilizers are altering the electric field of plants, which is changing the way bees perceive flowers. They keep them away from visiting flowers. And bee habitat is disappearing. Since the s, per cent of wildflower meadows have been lost in the UK as farming has intensified.
Fascinating as it is, this new study raises more questions than it answers (as good science often does). The data is based on groups of worker bees kept in cages. This method is often used to study the effects of stressors (such as pesticides) on bees.
In these types of experiments, researchers typically establish control groups simultaneously and under identical conditions. Nearman and van Engelsdorp used historical data from control groups in many of these studies conducted in the US since As the authors acknowledge, this is a weakness in their report.
They can't guarantee that lab conditions have remained the same since Perhaps older studies tended to use wooden cages and modern ones use plastic. Cage sizes can become smaller or larger. Airflow in modern incubators can now be faster or slower. Such details are rarely noticed. Anything that has changed in the last years could explain the reduction in longevity.
It won't be easy for scientists to unravel the study's findings. But if we could find historical data on wild bee longevity from previous decades, we could compare it to measurements from the world today. This would help scientists rule out the possibility that the study results were affected by laboratory conditions.
Reducing the lifespan of bees means reduced pollination. Bees and other pollinating insects are essential for a good harvest of percent of the crops we grow around the world. They also pollinate about percent of all wild plants . All bee species face similar challenges to honey bees, but we don't know if their lifespans have changed. If bees really live shorter lives in the wild, we need to know why.