Post by AtomHeartMother on Oct 16, 2004 9:55:25 GMT -5
Here is a very scary situation:[/i][/b][/size]
Bee Decline May Spell End of Some Fruits, Vegetables
John Roach for National Geographic News
October 5, 2004
Bees, via pollination, are responsible for 15 to 30 percent of the food U.S. consumers eat. But in the last 50 years the domesticated honeybee population—which most farmers depend on for pollination—has declined by about 50 percent, scientists say.
Unless actions are taken to slow the decline of domesticated honeybees and augment their populations with wild bees, many fruits and vegetables may disappear from the food supply, said Claire Kremen, a conservation biologist at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Anecdotes of farmers losing their crops owing to the honeybee shortage appear to be on the increase, Kremen said. Last February, for example, there were insufficient honeybees for all the almond blossoms in California. As a result some farmers failed to meet expected yields.
"There are shortages [like this] that pop up from time to time," Kremen said. "Whether there are more [shortages] than there were 20 years ago, one would guess yes, as there are fewer bees to go around, but it's not well documented."
Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate in the department of entomology with Pennsylvania State University in State College, said honeybee shortages are not yet impacting commercial producers of crops, but that community farmers "are struggling to get bees for pollination."
In fact, Dewey Caron, an entomologist at the University of Delaware in Newark, started to study the problem of the honeybee decline when he noticed that farmers in the northeastern U.S. increasingly lacked sufficient bee colonies to meet their pollination needs.
"Growers didn't have options if they didn't like the quality [of the bees] they got from one fellow," he said. "So, we started to ask, Well, what is affecting the bees? What can we do to keep them healthier?"
Bee Decline
The honeybee decline, which is affecting domesticated and wild bee populations around the world, is mostly the result of diseases spread as a result of mites and other parasites as well as the spraying of crops with pesticides, scientists say.
Among the greatest problems is the varroa mite, a bloodsucking parasite that attacks young and adult honeybees. Attacked bees often have deformed wings and abdomens and a shortened life span.
"The varroa mite is also really effective at transmitting disease, particularly viruses," Frazier said. Left untreated, a varroa mite infestation can wipe out a bee colony within a few months.
Another major bee pest is the tracheal mite, which gets inside adult bees and clogs their breathing tubes, essentially suffocating the insects. The tracheal mites also impede the bees' ability to fly, making them useless as pollinators, entomologists report.
According to Caron, both the varroa and tracheal mites lead to the death of the bees by puncturing holes in their bodies that serve as pathways for viruses. The viruses are what technically kill most of the bees, he said.
Decades of pesticide use has also taken its toll on honeybees, though farmers are beginning to refrain from pesticide applications while their crops are blooming. "People are definitely smarter than they used to be about how they apply pesticides," Kremen said.
Pest Management
Knowing that the use of pesticides, even those targeted specifically at mites, can be fraught with negative consequences, researchers are devising alternative measures to control the mites.
"Pesticides have a role. They can be very useful, but they should be down [on] the list of things we attempt," Caron said.
Toward the top of the list is the search for so-called biological control agents. One such agent scientists are looking at is a fungus that attacks mites but not the bees. However, research has yet to find a way to effectively deliver this fungus to a bee colony.
Researchers are meeting some mite-control success by increasing the ventilation of managed bee colonies. Most colonies are airtight by design, to protect honeybees from the elements. Caron likens the effect of such systems to traveling on an airplane.
"If anyone on an airplane has a cold, you are exposed to it. If they are sneezing, you have the potential to catch that cold," he said. "Bee colonies, too, are airtight. Once the pathogen is in there, it will have a better chance of spreading."
By opening colonies up to greater ventilation, Caron and his colleagues have found that the mites are less successful at reproducing. The bees can better cope with temperature fluctuations than previously believed.
Researchers are also busy combing the world's bee populations in search of bees that are resistant to—or have reduced susceptibility to—the mites. If the researchers can isolate the genes responsible for such mite-defying qualities, they could breed those genes into domestic honeybees.
"The work is very, very slow to develop those techniques," Frazier said. "And, of course, the beekeepers are desperate. If they don't use pesticides to protect their colonies, they are out of business. So, it is a real difficult situation."
Kremen's efforts are focused on augmenting the declining domesticated honeybee populations with wild bees. We'll learn more about her research in a future story.
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1005_041005_honeybees.html
Bee Decline May Spell End of Some Fruits, Vegetables
John Roach for National Geographic News
October 5, 2004
Bees, via pollination, are responsible for 15 to 30 percent of the food U.S. consumers eat. But in the last 50 years the domesticated honeybee population—which most farmers depend on for pollination—has declined by about 50 percent, scientists say.
Unless actions are taken to slow the decline of domesticated honeybees and augment their populations with wild bees, many fruits and vegetables may disappear from the food supply, said Claire Kremen, a conservation biologist at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Anecdotes of farmers losing their crops owing to the honeybee shortage appear to be on the increase, Kremen said. Last February, for example, there were insufficient honeybees for all the almond blossoms in California. As a result some farmers failed to meet expected yields.
"There are shortages [like this] that pop up from time to time," Kremen said. "Whether there are more [shortages] than there were 20 years ago, one would guess yes, as there are fewer bees to go around, but it's not well documented."
Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate in the department of entomology with Pennsylvania State University in State College, said honeybee shortages are not yet impacting commercial producers of crops, but that community farmers "are struggling to get bees for pollination."
In fact, Dewey Caron, an entomologist at the University of Delaware in Newark, started to study the problem of the honeybee decline when he noticed that farmers in the northeastern U.S. increasingly lacked sufficient bee colonies to meet their pollination needs.
"Growers didn't have options if they didn't like the quality [of the bees] they got from one fellow," he said. "So, we started to ask, Well, what is affecting the bees? What can we do to keep them healthier?"
Bee Decline
The honeybee decline, which is affecting domesticated and wild bee populations around the world, is mostly the result of diseases spread as a result of mites and other parasites as well as the spraying of crops with pesticides, scientists say.
Among the greatest problems is the varroa mite, a bloodsucking parasite that attacks young and adult honeybees. Attacked bees often have deformed wings and abdomens and a shortened life span.
"The varroa mite is also really effective at transmitting disease, particularly viruses," Frazier said. Left untreated, a varroa mite infestation can wipe out a bee colony within a few months.
Another major bee pest is the tracheal mite, which gets inside adult bees and clogs their breathing tubes, essentially suffocating the insects. The tracheal mites also impede the bees' ability to fly, making them useless as pollinators, entomologists report.
According to Caron, both the varroa and tracheal mites lead to the death of the bees by puncturing holes in their bodies that serve as pathways for viruses. The viruses are what technically kill most of the bees, he said.
Decades of pesticide use has also taken its toll on honeybees, though farmers are beginning to refrain from pesticide applications while their crops are blooming. "People are definitely smarter than they used to be about how they apply pesticides," Kremen said.
Pest Management
Knowing that the use of pesticides, even those targeted specifically at mites, can be fraught with negative consequences, researchers are devising alternative measures to control the mites.
"Pesticides have a role. They can be very useful, but they should be down [on] the list of things we attempt," Caron said.
Toward the top of the list is the search for so-called biological control agents. One such agent scientists are looking at is a fungus that attacks mites but not the bees. However, research has yet to find a way to effectively deliver this fungus to a bee colony.
Researchers are meeting some mite-control success by increasing the ventilation of managed bee colonies. Most colonies are airtight by design, to protect honeybees from the elements. Caron likens the effect of such systems to traveling on an airplane.
"If anyone on an airplane has a cold, you are exposed to it. If they are sneezing, you have the potential to catch that cold," he said. "Bee colonies, too, are airtight. Once the pathogen is in there, it will have a better chance of spreading."
By opening colonies up to greater ventilation, Caron and his colleagues have found that the mites are less successful at reproducing. The bees can better cope with temperature fluctuations than previously believed.
Researchers are also busy combing the world's bee populations in search of bees that are resistant to—or have reduced susceptibility to—the mites. If the researchers can isolate the genes responsible for such mite-defying qualities, they could breed those genes into domestic honeybees.
"The work is very, very slow to develop those techniques," Frazier said. "And, of course, the beekeepers are desperate. If they don't use pesticides to protect their colonies, they are out of business. So, it is a real difficult situation."
Kremen's efforts are focused on augmenting the declining domesticated honeybee populations with wild bees. We'll learn more about her research in a future story.
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1005_041005_honeybees.html