The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia

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Saturday, 19 August 2023 13:42

Bees are the bees knees!

image0.jpegCynthia Maples, the head beekeeper at Zoo Knoxville, checks out her buzzing charges.  JJ Stambaugh

With no clear cause, after two decades beekeepers across North America report losing up to 90 percent of their hives.

Although the alarming losses of the 2006-7 season have not repeated, since then, experts consistently track higher than normal winter losses among honeybee colonies, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

A survey by the University of Maryland University of Maryland found 40% of US honeybee colonies died between April 2018 and April 2019.

While most Americans associate the insects with one of humankind’s oldest sweet treats - honey - they might not realize honeybees are actually an invasive species that can end up competing for resources with indigenous “pollinators” such as bumblebees. 

“Worldwide, there are over 20,000 species of bees,” said Cynthia Maples, the lead beekeeper and apiarist at Zoo Knoxville. “About 265 of those are bumble bees. In North America, there are 46 bumblebee species. In the southeast, we have about 15 bumble species with at least six of those in decline.”

Maples explained all bees are part of the order Hymenoptera, which also includes ants and wasps.

“Native pollinators would classify as those species naturally occurring in a particular area, not introduced. Honeybees are technically an invasive species to North America. They were brought over from Europe by humans,” she said.

“In the past few years the narrative has made a switch from keeping honeybees to help native pollinators to the realization that honeybees may be stealing resources from native pollinators,” she continued. “Honeybees are still very important as agricultural pollinators, but protecting native pollinators is also very important.”

While Maples doesn’t know if local bee populations are on the ropes, she said the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (an international nonprofit group) has formed regional “community science groups” as part of a widespread effort to track bumblebee species. 

“It’s really hard to say specifically if there has been a decline in local insect populations since insects are very difficult to track,” she said. “I took part in the training for the southeast bumble bee atlas earlier this year. The hope is that this atlas will give scientists a better idea of population numbers.”

It’s important that scientists understand any threats to the health of the world’s bee populations as the insects are vital to humankind’s ability to survive.

Bees — both domesticated and wild — are responsible for pollinating 71 of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the global food supply, according to experts from greentumble.

Without bees, for instance, there would be no apples, avocados, onions, cucumbers, oranges or almonds. 

“Pollination is defined as the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma,” Maples explained. “When bees go from flower to flower collecting pollen, they are also depositing pollen grains onto the flowers, thus pollinating them. Not all plants rely on insects to reproduce; for example, some are wind pollinated.”

“The bees benefit because nectar and pollen are their food source. Nectar is an energy source and pollen is a protein source for them. Many agricultural plants are pollinated by bees, hence their importance for us. Roughly one in three bites of food are pollinated by bees, plus another 25 percent of animal feed stuffs. Almonds are 100 percent honeybee pollinated.”

It’s not entirely clear why bee populations appear to be shrinking, but Maples said there’s no shortage of possible explanations.

“As with many species in decline, there are a number of reasons behind it,” she said. “Habitat loss is a big one. Our culture has taught us that we should have pristine lawns without ‘weeds,’ but letting your yard — even in part — grow wild would be a huge step in creating more resources for pollinators. Dandelions and clover can be a haven for pollinators.”

Poisons used to control unwanted animals and insects are another factor. 

“Pesticides have a huge impact as well, especially though containing neonicotinoids,” she said. “Pesticides rarely distinguish between beneficial invertebrates and those that cause harm.”

This summer’s historic heatwaves in the Northern Hemisphere may also be playing a role, but Maples cautioned that it’s too early to know for certain what the impact is. 

“Climate change may also be playing a role,” she explained. “It isn’t clear if bumblebees are adapting to changing temperatures within their normal ranges.” 

Those interested in helping researchers to track bee populations can go to Xerces and learn about taking part in one of the organization’s community science groups.

Do bees really have knees? And more on the idiom.

 

Published in News
Dust bowl soilThe Dust Bowl of the 1930s resulted in the displacement of tons of soil in the midst of a drought similar to the one that grips the Southwest today. Library of Congress
 

Dirt is far from just dirt. It’s a foundation for life.

This story was originally published by The Revelator.

Look down. You may not see the soil beneath your feet as teeming with life, but it is.

Better scientific tools are helping us understand that dirt isn’t just dirt. Life in the soil includes microbes like bacteria and fungi; invertebrates such as earthworms and nematodes; plant roots; and even mammals like gophers and badgers who spend part of their time below ground.

It’s commonly said that a quarter of all the planet’s biodiversity lives in the soil, but that’s likely a vast understatement. Many species that reside there, particularly microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and protists, aren’t yet known to science.

Published in News

 Bales Monarch on coneflowerA monarch butterfly, recently declared endangered despite decades of conservation, is seen atop a coneflower. Stephen Lyn Bales

Dramatic monarch declines mean the bell tolls for we

KNOXVILLE — Monarch butterflies are ephemeral by nature. The orange and black dalliances that flitter through our lives, our yards, and our countryside like motes of dust are here one minute and gone the next. We pause for a few seconds to watch the “flutter-bys” and then move on.

For about all of the Lepidopteran family, where they come from, where they go, their raison d'être, we don’t ask. They are winged wisps that pass through our busy lives. But that is not true with this orange and black butterfly, named to honor King William III of England, the Prince of Orange. But two people did ask.

Norah and Fred Urquhart lived in Southern Canada and in the late 1930s they noticed that the monarch butterflies seemed to all be fluttering south this time of the year. Could they possibly be migrating and if so, where did they go? The notion that a butterfly might migrate south for the winter seemed hard to fathom. Yes, broad-winged hawks migrate. But a flimsy butterfly?

Published in News

carpenter bee penstemon lgA male carpenter bee takes a break from building its nest to get nourishing nectar from the base of a penstemon.  Juian Cowles/U.S. Forest Service

Please don’t wage chemical warfare on these busy bees

KNOXVILLE — Old George Harvey lived two houses upstream from where I grew up on Baskins Creek in Gatlinburg. He had a strange obsession. Using empty jars, Old George would catch bees he found on the flowers and gardens around his house, screw on the lid and line the jars up on a ledge inside his screened-in porch. He’d then watch the bees die.

We kids thought it was odd and cruel. We’d plot slipping into his porch and freeing all the bees like Elliot freed the frogs from the classroom in the movie “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.”

Published in Creature Features