Pollinator decline

Millions of bees are dying off, an average of 30% of all honey bee colonies dies each winter. We rely on bees to pollinate 90% of the world's food and to increase the yield by up to 30%. Many fruits and vegetables would become scarce and prohibitively expensive without the bees. If bees became extinct most of our food will no longer exist and if it did, it wouldn't be very affordable. Scientists have pointed out several causes behind this problem, including global warming, habitat loss,…

Pesticides appear to play a great role in cases of colony collapse. For example, neonicotinoids appear to impact bee behavior in ways that easily provide the opportunity for illnesses and parasites to strike when a bee already has a poor diet and a hampered immune system. A neonicotinoid is a newer form of pesticide which is produced in the form of pellets and put into the soil. When watered, the crops absorb the chemicals from these pellets through their roots. This makes them pest-resistant…

typically around the crops in larger quantities. However, as of 2014 they are still not proposing any changes to labels of chemicals. Also in 2014 in coordination with the EPA, President Obama established a Pollinator Health Taskforce. This task force is to ensure the safety of pollinators, better understand the loss, and prevent this from happening in the…

In attempting to determine whether wild hummingbirds are able to learn the refill schedules of flowers based on facilitated colour cues, Samuels, Hurly & Healy (2014) found that hummingbirds in the cued conditions were better and faster at discriminating between the refill intervals. They performed this study since there are not many studies which look at interval timing outside a controlled laboratory environment, as well as not many which remove other cues that may facilitate learning in the…

Summary This essay begins by introducing the problem of declining bee populations and its significance. Varroa mites are discussed as a primary cause of declining bee populations. Next she discusses challenges to conventional forms of pest management including the Varroa mites development of resistances to traditional stand alone chemical treatments. Considering the limitations of conventional pest management, she then looks at some researchers, including Monsanto, and their attempts to use…

Over the past century, the human population has been exponentially growing and developing past 7 billion people. During this time period, many scientific advancements have been achieved. One of the less popular successes of the twenty first century include the concept of robotic bees. While at first bees may not appear to be of major concern, statistics and research studies tend to dictate otherwise. According to Crystal Ponti, whom is a science, technology and health reporter, “last year, the U…

Talking about the most popular and lovely animals in the world, most people will chose puppies, cats, or birds. However, there is a few people who raise a kind of small insect as their pets, a tiny animal that can be seen everywhere in gardens and farms. At the same time, as one of the biggest groups of insects, bees are facing the unprecedented challenge; their population has been dramatically decreasing since 1971, especially between 2006 and 2007. The main reasons can be attributed to the…

The authors of this paper recognized a lack of literature on the indirect effect predators have on prey, and pondered that this perceived risk might have a greater influence on prey behavior and life history than direct predation. By consistently removing any possibility for potential predators to reach the nests of a population of song sparrows, as well as playing recordings of potential predators, the authors reported a 40% decrease in the number of offspring produced. They also report a…

Without bees and natural pollinators to fulfill their job of pollination, companies would have to regress into the act of artificial pollination. Artificial, or hand, pollination is a procedure used when natural, often referred to as open, pollination is either insufficient or unwanted or both. Hand pollination is best understood by imagining the process in the same way as artificial insemination in human beings. The value of both wild and/or managed pollinators (such as artificial pollination)…

PESTICIDES: THE UGLY, THE BAD AND THE BEES. To pesticide or not to pesticide? The correct answer for this question is no! Pesticides should be banned because these products have harmful effects to many living things. One of the most important pollinators on the planet, bees, are an organism that is highly affected by pesticides. Pesticides contribute to many health problems in adults and children. Pesticides today contaminate our food and water, along with hurting the environment in other…