US sees massive drop in bumble bees: study (Update)
A bumble bee collects pollen on flowers in Washington, DC. Weakened by inbreeding and disease, bumble bees have died off at an astonishing rate over the past 20 years, with some US populations diving more than 90 percent, according to a new study.
Weakened by inbreeding and disease, bumble bees have died off at an astonishing rate over the past 20 years, with some US populations diving more than 90 percent, according to a new study.
The findings are of concern because bees play a crucial role in pollinating crops such as tomatoes, peppers and berries, said the findings of a three-year study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Similar declines have also been seen in Europe and Asia, said Sydney Cameron, of the Department of Entomology and Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois, the main author of the study.
"The decline of bumble bees in the US is associated with two things we were able to study: the pathogen Nosema bombi and a decline in genetic diversity. But we are not saying Nosema is the cause. We don't know," said Cameron.
"It's just an association. There may be other causes."
Fact file on bumble bees. US populations of the species have dropped more than 90 percent in 20 years, according to a new study.
He added that the decline is "huge and recent," having taken place in the last two decades.Nosema bombi is a bee pathogen that has also afflicted European bumble bees.
Researchers examined eight species of North American bumble bees and found that the "relative abundance of four species has dropped by more than 90 percent, suggesting die-offs further supported by shrinking geographic ranges," said the study.
"Compared with species of relatively stable population sizes, the dwindling bee species had low genetic diversity, potentially rendering them prone to pathogens and environmental pressures."
Their cousins, the honey bees, have also experienced catastrophic die-offs since 2006 in a phenomenon known as "colony collapse disorder," though the causes have yet to be fully determined.
Bees play a crucial role in pollinating crops such as tomatoes, peppers and berries and their decline would have a serious impact on agriculture. Some US populations have declined by 90 percent.
Bumble bees also make honey, but it is used to feed the colony, not farmed for human consumption.They are however raised in Europe for pollinating greenhouse vegetables in a multi-billion-dollar industry that has more recently taken off in Japan and Israel and is being developed in Mexico and China, Cameron said.
"We need to start to develop other bees for pollination beside honey bees, because they are suffering enormously," he added.
There are around 250 species of bumble bee, including 50 in the United States alone.
(c) 2011 AFP
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Jan 03, 2011
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Jan 03, 2011
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Are bumble bees colonial?
Jan 03, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
"Bumblebees form colonies. These colonies are usually much less extensive than those of honey bees... Often, mature bumblebee nests will hold fewer than 50 individuals."
So yes.
Jan 03, 2011
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Jan 03, 2011
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Jan 03, 2011
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Bees use ultraviolet light to see, so if the amount of UV drops significantly (20-30% during this past cycle), they can't find food from the dimming and die out.
Jan 03, 2011
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There are a lot of ecological models using differential equations. When you didn't have better tools, that gave you some insight into how ecological systems worked. Then came both chaos theory and the computers to actually run complex models. No surprise, real ecologies are huge chaotic systems.
What that means for any individual species, is that numbers will vary wildly with time, if the numbers go too low, that species will disappear. Usually because some more fit species has come along.
Apply this to individual species of bumble bees, and you can be almost certain that the most populous species ten years ago won't be the most populous species of bumble bees today. Will it again be the most populous species some time in the future? Again with probability approaching one.
Jan 04, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
So I'm unsure if article is really about long-standing(last decade) decline in Honey Bees, or this is a new finding, really about Bumble Bees?
Jan 04, 2011
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Who knows? The quality of Physorg is getting worse and worse. Even the quality of people leaving comments has dropped to ridiculous lows recently.
Jan 04, 2011
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hahah, good job man, good logic you are incredibly ignorant I admit!
Jan 04, 2011
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I think not.
Jan 04, 2011
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Jan 04, 2011
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Jan 06, 2011
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Jan 06, 2011
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It happens all the time with lots of different animals, the last case I know is with the dieing off of frogs in South America-full devastation, what can we do, well not much nature will find its balance, it always does.Actually we can GM them to be resistant- this is the way to be always one step ahead from illneses.
And as you think it is really logical, it can spread really fast, bees from different colonies feeding from one plant, and then this bees spreading it into the hive....Actually to confirm this they should look is there any correlation between density of hives and the persisting problem, and are isolated hives more healty.
Jan 11, 2011
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