by University of Göttingen

Carpenter bees (Xylocopa sp) at Lablab in Bengaluru. Credit: Vikas S Rao

Increasing urbanization worldwide is a growing threat to biodiversity. At the same time, flowering plants are often more diverse in cities than in the countryside. This is due to flowering plants and agricultural crops, which are increasingly being grown in cities. A recent study shows that the interactions between plants and pollinators, which are essential for agricultural production, are surprisingly dynamic.

For example, the plant and bee species involved in pollination vary significantly between the seasons. This was shown by an international research team led by the University of Göttingen. The scientists studied farms that produce vegetables in the southern Indian metropolis of Bengaluru—a classic example of a rapidly growing city in the tropics.

Urbanization intensifies the seasonal differences in plant-pollinator networks, as a comparison of urban and rural cultivation areas revealed. The results were published in the journal Ecology Letters.

To identify influences on the interactions between pollinators and plants, the researchers analyzed 36 vegetable-producing farms in Bengaluru every month for a year. In this way, they covered the seasons that are characteristic of the local climate: the mild-dry winter, the hot-dry summer, and the rainy monsoon.

The farms were distributed along two routes that ran from the city center to the rural villages. The researchers recorded the bee species at each site, the plant species visited by bees, and the frequency of these interactions.

From the data, they identified plant-pollinator networks for each location and each season. They analyzed which factors explain differences in the interactions: the time of year, or the distance from the city center, or the degree of urbanization as indicated by the proportion of “sealed surfaces” such as roads, buildings, or pavements.

“Our study provides new insights into the role of urbanization in the dynamics of networks involving plants and pollinators in the tropics, which have been little studied. This is particularly important as current and future urban expansions are largely occurring in tropical regions, where they are subject to different ecological, climate, and social factors than in temperate zones,” explains first author Dr. Gabriel Marcacci, a former Ph.D. student in the Functional Agrobiodiversity research group at the University of Göttingen and now a postdoc at the Swiss Ornithological Institute and the University of Neuchâtel.

“Our results point to major changes in plant-pollinator networks over the course of the year and to the little-recognized importance of seasonality for the interactions between plants and their pollinators, especially in rapidly growing tropical megacities,” say co-authors Professors Catrin Westphal and Teja Tscharntke from the University of Göttingen and Ingo Grass from the University of Hohenheim.

The research was carried out as part of an interdisciplinary DFG research group that investigates changes in socio-ecological systems at the interface of urban and rural environments in India.

More information: Gabriel Marcacci et al, Urbanization alters the spatiotemporal dynamics of plant–pollinator networks in a tropical megacity, Ecology Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1111/ele.14324

Journal information: Ecology Letters

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://phys.org/news/2023-12-urbanization-seasonal-differences-plant-pollinator-networks.html

Beekeeping under climate change

Peter Neumann and Lars Straub,

Institute of Bee Health, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; b Faculty of Science, Energy and Environment, King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Rayong, Thailand; c Centre for Ecology, Evolution, and Behaviour, Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK

Figure 1. Beekeeping under climate change. Environmental challenges for bees and beekeepers due to a changing climate (= white area) and possible migration measures (= green area) are shown with an ongoing colony inspection in the center.

ABSTRACT There is consensus that climate change is one of the grand challenges facing humanity in the twenty first century, inevitably the most confided and undeniably one of the most pressing. Profound effects are inevitable in global agriculture, and beekeeping is certainly no exemption. Indeed, extreme weather and natural disasters have already had an impact on honey bees. Thus, it appears evident that climate change will constitute a key stress factor for managed bees and beekeepers alike contributing to increased colony losses and reduced income. Here, we review the literature on the impact of climate change on honey bees and beekeeping. Based on the literature, it is evident that at present there is no inclusive strategy for beekeeping to adequately deal with the challenges global climate change will bring. Here, we call for such a strategy and briefly list the main challenges for future beekeeping due to a changing climate as well as suggest possible countermeasures. Ultimately, the impact of climate change and its mitigation are at present insufficiently understood in the beekeeping context. This calls for respective concerted efforts of scientists, beekeepers, and other stakeholders to find a sustainable future for beekeeping. Such efforts will inevitably require evidence-based mitigation measures to deal with the increasing global impact of climate change.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Beekeeping under climate change (tandfonline.com)

By Chrissy Sexton

Earth.com staff writer

In addition to their struggle with habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change, bees are now facing yet another threat – ozone pollution. A new study reveals that bees and other pollinators are having difficulty locating flowers due to air pollution’s degradation of floral scents.

The extensive research involved a collaboration between the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and several academic institutions including the University of Birmingham.

Ozone pollution

One of the key findings was the significant impact of ozone on floral odor plumes. Ozone was found to reduce the size of these odor plumes and significantly alter their scent.

The most alarming revelation was the discovery that ozone pollution could reduce the ability of honeybees to identify odors by up to 90 percent.

Ozone forms at ground level when nitrogen oxide emissions from vehicular and industrial sources interact with volatile organic compounds emitted by plants, catalyzed by sunlight.

“Our study provides robust evidence that the changes due to ground-level ozone on floral scent cause pollinators to struggle to carry out their crucial role in the natural environment also with implications for food security,” said Professor Christian Pfrang, who was actively involved in the research.

Detrimental impacts

With previous studies highlighting ozone’s detrimental impact on plant growth and subsequent food production, this research further emphasizes the scale of the problem.

Dr. Ben Langford, an atmospheric scientist at UKCEH and the lead author of the study, pointed out that 75% of our food crops and nearly 90% of wild flowering plants depend, to some extent, upon animal pollination – particularly by insects.

“Therefore, understanding what adversely affects pollination, and how, is essential to helping us preserve the critical services that we rely upon for production of food, textiles, biofuels and medicines, for example.”

Focus of the study

To measure the impact, the research team set up an experiment in a 30-meter wind tunnel at the University of Surrey. This allowed them observe changes in the size and structure of odor plumes in the presence of ozone.

The experts found that certain compounds in the scent plume decayed faster than others due to ozone, leading to a significant change in the overall scent.

Floral scents

The role of floral scents is pivotal in the world of pollinators. Honeybees, for instance, associate the unique blend of chemical compounds in a flower’s scent with the nectar it provides.

This association assists them in locating the same species of flower in later searches. But, with ozone-modified scents, the research disclosed a worrying pattern.

At the center of scent plumes, only 52% of honeybees could recognize a scent from 6 meters away, dropping to 38% at 12 meters. Even more concerning, at the edges of these plumes, which decayed faster due to ozone, just 32% of the bees could identify the scent from 6 meters, and only 10% could do so from 12 meters.

Study implications

Beyond the hunt for flowers, the research hints at potential disruptions in other odor-controlled behaviors of insects, such as mating.

This pivotal research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, which operates under UK Research and Innovation, and the findings are published in the journal Environmental Pollution.

“We know that air pollution has a detrimental effect on human health, biodiversity, and the climate, but now we can see how it prevents bees and other pollinating insects from carrying out their key job,” said Professor Pfrang.

“This should act as a wake-up call to take action on air pollution and help safeguard food production and biodiversity for the future.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Ozone pollution makes it difficult for bees to find flowers • Earth.com

by Mark Patrick Taylor, Kara Fry and Max M Gillings, The Conversation

Credit: Shutterstock

Our cities are complex places of work, industry and residential activities. This often makes it hard to pin down the spread of different contaminants throughout them.

This can be a concern, especially given mounting evidence there is no “safe” limit of exposure for many of the chemicals we use in our daily lives. The connections between contamination, food, water and human health add to these concerns.

Measuring contamination in soil or dust is a good start. But this can only tell us the level of a contaminant at the place it was sampled. Our two new studies have used backyard bees to better monitor contamination in urban environments.

The buzz behind biomonitoring

When it comes to understanding contamination, honey bees can do the hard work for us. While foraging for nectar, pollen and water, bees are constantly picking up contaminants from their environment. Because we know their lifespan and approximate foraging range, chemical analysis can provide a snapshot of the levels of contaminants in their foraging area at that time.

With the help of backyard beekeepers, our two studies, published in Environmental Science & Technology and Environmental Pollution traced toxic metals and antimicrobial resistance genes across two urban centers: Sydney, Australia, and Nouméa, New Caledonia.

European honey bees have long been used as sentinel species to monitor for pests and diseases, including Varroa mites and chemicals at airports. Bees can also be used as biomonitors to understand contaminants across our urban environments.

Foraging honey bees pick up contaminants in the environment. Credit: Mark Patrick Taylor

As the popularity of urban beekeeping has grown, there has been more research on honey bee biomonitoring of a range of contaminants, including metals, pesticides and so-called “forever chemicals,” known as PFAS, in honey.

How bees help us map pollution

Honey bees can reveal patterns of contamination that might otherwise go unnoticed.

In Nouméa, we used honey bees to map impacts from the local nickel smelter. We found levels of metals associated with the smelter—nickel, chromium and cobalt—were elevated next to the smelter and decreased farther away.

This might not sound surprising given the smelter is a major source of pollution. However, comparing the data from bees to soil and dust samples revealed bees were the most sensitive and effective marker of smelter contamination.

By mapping trace metals in honey bees in Sydney we could look at the specific factors contributing to metal pollution within their foraging range. For the neurotoxic metal lead, we found residential and industrial activity were key influences, especially in heavily populated inner-city areas.

In contrast, less populated locations and larger areas of parks or farms had higher levels of manganese. This likely came from natural soil sources and pesticide use.

We also examined how bees can help us understand emerging concerns such as the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes. It’s a key concern in urban areas, driven by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics.

We found these AMR genes were common across Sydney—83% of bees examined had ingested one or more of the genes we looked for. The source was not strongly linked to industrial activity, but rather the area of water bodies available for the bees to drink from. This may be because these genes can enter the environment through human wastewater and runoff and then be absorbed by foraging bees.

How do contaminants affect bees?

We also wanted to know if bees that contained contaminants…

To read the full article go to-How bees can monitor pollution for us: Everything from toxic metals to antimicrobial resistance (phys.org)

More information: Kara L. Fry et al, Tracing the Sources and Prevalence of Class 1 Integrons, Antimicrobial Resistance, and Trace Elements Using European Honey Bees, Environmental Science & Technology (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c03775

Mark Patrick Taylor et al, Tracing nickel smelter emissions using European honey bees, Environmental Pollution (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122257

Journal information: Environmental Science & Technology  , Environmental Pollution

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: How bees can monitor pollution for us: Everything from toxic metals to antimicrobial resistance (phys.org)

By Paw Mozter

Wild bees are vital pollinators of many crops and wild plants, but they are facing multiple threats from climate change, habitat loss, pesticides, and diseases.

A new study by researchers from the University of Reading has revealed how warmer springs are causing British bees to wake up earlier, potentially disrupting their synchronization with flowering plants and affecting their survival and reproduction.

The effect of temperature on bee emergence

(Photo : KHALIL MAZRAAWI/afp/AFP via Getty Images)

The researchers used a large database of nest materials used by 5,924 species of wild bees over a period of 40 years, and analyzed the relationship between temperature and the dates when bees emerge from their nests, as per Phys.org.

They found that for every 1-degree Celsius rise in temperature caused by climate change, wild bees, such as bumblebees, emerge from their nests 6.5 days earlier on average.

This means that as spring starts earlier and bees become active closer to the start of the year, they may lose sync with the plants on which they depend for food.

This could reduce their chances of finding enough pollen and nectar to survive and produce offspring. It could also affect their ability to pollinate crops effectively, or they may miss crop blossom completely.

The researchers also found that distinct species of bees respond differently to the changing temperature, and that some bees emerge earlier than others.

This could alter the composition and diversity of bee communities and have implications for plant-pollinator interactions.

The implications for crop pollination

The shift in bee emergence could have negative consequences for crop pollination, especially for plants that are heavily dependent on pollination, such as apple trees, as per Daily Mail.

If bees emerge too early or too late, they may not be able to pollinate the crops when they are in bloom, resulting in lower yields and quality.

To prevent this, farmers may need to rely more on managed honeybees, which can be moved around to match crop flowering times. However, this could entail greater costs, which may be passed on to consumers.

Moreover, honeybees may not be able to replace the pollination services provided by wild bees, which are more diverse and adapted to different plants and environments.

To better understand how climate change affects crop flowering times, the researchers have set up a project called FruitWatch, which encourages people to report when fruit trees in their gardens, parks or allotments start to flower.

This could help them monitor how fruit trees respond to changing weather conditions and how this affects their pollination by wild bees.

The study shows that climate change is having a significant impact on the emergence patterns of wild bees in Britain, and that this could affect their survival, reproduction, and pollination services.

The researchers suggested that more research is needed to understand how distinct species of bees and plants cope with the changing temperature, and how this affects their interactions and dependencies.

They also recommend that conservation efforts should focus on protecting and restoring habitats that can provide food and shelter for bees throughout the year.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Impact of Climate Change on Wild Bees: How They Are Emerging Earlier and What It Means for Pollination | Nature World News

PPQ and Washington State Partners Get Ready for Another Hunting Season

In 2021, visiting Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA), entomologist Jessica Rendon and PPQ’s Plant Health Safeguarding Specialist Stacy Herron tracked a tagged northern giant hornet (NGH) to its nest in record time. The nest, which was successfully eradicated from an Alder tree, contained nearly 1,500 NGH life stages.

Tracking Northern Giant Hornet is An Adventure Like No Other

By Sharon Lucik

This is the final article in a 3-part Plant Protection Today series about the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Plant Protection and Quarantine program and the Washington State Department of Agriculture, and their response to the northern giant hornet (NGH).

The NGH (Vespa mandarinia) is a social wasp species. Its native range extends from northern India to East Asia. This pest was first reported in the Vancouver Island area of Canada in August 2019 and was also detected in Washington State that same year in December.

Most days you can find the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Plant Protection and Quarantine’s (PPQ’s) Plant Health Safeguarding Specialist Stacy Herron at the U.S.-Canada land border crossing in Blaine, WA, conducting routine agriculture quarantine inspection duties. Other days, Herron is nowhere to be found because he’s hunting with his colleagues from the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA). Not for deer, elk, or black bear. They’re hunting the largest hornet in the world—the northern giant hornet (NGH).

NGH was first detected in 2019, and from the onset Herron has been all in. He attends meetings, sets and monitors traps, responds to public sightings, and helps capture and tag live hornets and track them back to their nest. His enthusiasm and dedication to the work is mirrored by everyone on the team.

“This year the team will set more than 1,000 traps in northern Whatcom County,” said Herron. “Since this is our fourth trapping season, most landowners know what we’re doing and support us. Although we didn’t detect a single northern giant hornet last year, there’s no predicting what this season will bring. If we have a repeat and there are no detections, that means we’ll be one year closer to declaring NGH eradicated.”

The Hunt

According to Herron, the release of a tagged NGH can be exciting, frustrating, and even boring depending on what the hornet does. It may fly to a tree branch, land on the peak of a house, or head into the forest. Whatever path the hornets take, so does the tracking team—keeping the radio signal strong is central to finding their nests.

“We typically use a 3-person tracking team for each hornet release,” Herron said. “All of us carry a hand-held antenna connected to a radio receiver to monitor the tag’s signal, and mobile phones to communicate our location and signal strength. We wear headphones to hear the signal, neon vests so we can see each other in the distance, and ID badges because before we can enter a property, we first need to get permission from the landowners.”

Despite the team’s planning and preparations, they’ve had their share of unexpected challenges. The team found a radio tag in the underbrush that had fallen off the hornet they were tracking. On another occasion, overhead electrical powerlines interfered with the tag’s signal and confounded tracking for hours. And when a tagged hornet crossed the border into Canada, the team had to scramble and hand-off the tracking equipment to a Canadian apiary partner so their efforts could continue—only to have the hornet fly back over the border.

“We do our best and never lose sight of the endgame,” Herron said. “We’re determined and confident, and our track record speaks for itself. Our team has successfully located and eradicated 4 NGH nests, and if there are more nests out there, I’m optimistic that we will find and eliminate them too.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: USDA APHIS | PPQ and Washington State Partners Get Ready for Another Hunting Season

$15K grant supports local efforts in eastern Kansas

Kansas teens are learning how to plan, plant and maintain habitats that attract butterflies, bees and other pollinators. (Photo courtesy of Cheri Nelsen, Wildcat Extension District)

MANHATTAN, Kan. – An ambitious group of teenagers have set out on a path to improve pollinator habitat in their communities, while giving a nod to the important role that bees and butterflies play in food production.

Cheri Nelsen, a 4-H youth development agent in K-State Research and Extension’s Wildcat District, said the teens are learning how to plan, plant and maintain habitats that attract pollinators.

“Many youth know about pollinators like bees and butterflies, but they don’t always know what is needed for attracting and keeping pollinators,” Nelsen said.

Earlier this year, Nelsen and Leavenworth County extension agent Sonya Murphy were awarded a $15,000 grant from the National 4-H Council and Corteva Agriscience to support community-based pollinator projects.

The group includes youth from the Wildcat District – which includes Crawford, Labette, Montgomery and Wilson counties in southeast Kansas – and Leavenworth County (northeast Kansas). Nelsen said 17 youth have received initial training for teaching others; each of those youth is charged with teaching an additional 250 youth about pollinator habitats.

National wildlife conservation officials have put recent emphasis on creating habitat that attracts pollinators. As an example, in mid-2022, the iconic monarch butterfly – known for its bright orange and black markings – was placed on the endangered list, a result of habitat destruction and climate change, among other reasons.

As they move about, pollinators often choose milkweed to lay eggs.

“Maintaining a healthy habitat is important for pollinators,” Nelsen said. In nature, bees, butterflies and other pollinators carry pollen from the male part of a flower (known as the stamen) to the female part of the same or another flower.

Nelsen adds: “We all need to eat, and pollinators also play a vital role in food production (by pollinating food crops). For myself, I enjoy watching kids learn new things and doing things to help the community.”

In Parsons, youth are planting a seven acre plot to native plants. Nelsen said part of the process is determining what type of pollinator plants need to be included.

In Leavenworth County, youth are planning a pollinator garden at the Veteran’s Administration hospital.

Nelsen said youth have also taught lessons at Earth Day and in local schools, and are planning events during the upcoming county fair season.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: 4-H Youth Launch Projects to Improve Pollinator Habitat | Morning Ag Clips

Honey bees and ground bumblebees fly with thick purple pollen pouches to the flower of a corn poppy, also called poppy or corn rose, to obtain nectar in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (Wolfgang Kumm/dpa via AP)

Joey Chini

As several Canadians in some parts of the country deal with an abundance of snow and severe winter storms, most are likely looking ahead to brighter, warmer days in the spring.

And while spring may not arrive as quickly as some hope this year, according to the Weather Network, that can be a blessing or a curse for certain aspects of the environment, according to two separate studies.

The arrival of an early spring can be good for plants, North Carolina State University researchers say, while it’s bad for bees according to research from Lund University.

BAD NEWS FOR BEES

A new study from Sweden’s Lund University, meanwhile, shows bumblebee queens are ending their hibernation earlier in the year because of climate change.

Queens are the only bees that survive throughout winter by hibernating, after which they fly to find a nest where they can lay eggs and start a colony.

According to the study, the rising temperatures caused by climate change that could lead to an earlier spring are what’s driving bees to wake up earlier—an average of five days earlier than 20 years ago.

Researcher Maria Blasi Romero says the phenomenon increases the risk of losing additional bumblebee species, and having less pollination of crops and wild plants.

“Across Sweden, we see that the increased temperatures due to climate change clearly affect when the queens wake up and fly to find a new nest,” said Romero.

However, warmer weather earlier in the year is not the only reason for changes in bee behaviour. The study notes the loss of meadows and pastures in Sweden over the past century as another major factor.

Scientists looked at bumblebee queens as far back as 117 years ago, finding the first bumblebee flights in intensively farmed areas now happen roughly two weeks earlier than more than 100 years ago.

Additionally, of the 10 bee species that researchers looked at, the ones that used to start flying earliest in spring now start even earlier, while other species haven’t changed when they end hibernation.

Researcher Anna S Persson says there is a risk this can lead to bumblebees not getting enough food and a mismatch between when flowering plants and bees are active.

“We see a clear risk that more bumblebee species are at risk of extinction locally, especially the species that usually emerge later in the summer. This could also lead to a decline in the number of bumblebees overall and that would have consequences for the pollination of crops and the functioning of ecosystems. Bumblebees are important pollinators, especially in northern latitudes such as in Scandinavia,” Persson said.

Lund University researchers add there are several ways to help reduce the effects of climate change on pollinators such as bumblebees, including preserving natural grasslands, mowing roadsides later in the season after the flowering period, designing flower strips and hedges in a way that favors pollinators and increasing the sowing of clover-rich leys that are partly allowed to flower.

AN EARLY SPRING CAN BE GOOD FOR PLANTS

If spring comes earlier in the year, researchers from North Carolina State University say it can affect the amount of leaves plants produce, and therefore increase the amount of carbon plants can capture and store during photosynthesis.

In the study published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, authors note the amount of leaves plants are able to produce is what’s known as “greening,” while a decrease in vegetation growth is called “browning.”

Researchers used satellites to measure plant “greening” between 2000 and 2014 as well as sensors to calculate how much carbon plants removed from the atmosphere each year during photosynthesis.

Study co-author Josh Gray, associate professor of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University, says climate change is the biggest reason for differences in “greening” and “browning” every year.

“As we work to anticipate the future climate, a big question is: What’s going to happen to vegetation, one of the largest stores of carbon on earth?” Gray said. “We know temperatures will rise and the growing season will be longer in most places, but there are a lot of unknowns about how that will affect how carbon is cycled between plants and the atmosphere. Our new results allow us to be more confident about what those changes will be.”

In addition to when seasons start and how long they last, Gray says warmer weather can meddle with photosynthesis and contribute to new plant growth in some parts of the world.

Xiaojie Gao, a graduate student in North Carolina State’s Center for Geospatial Analytics and the study’s first author, says an earlier spring may be good for plants because they have a longer time to photosynthesize and increase how much carbon they can capture.

“However, a longer autumn might make the situation worse. In autumn, plants tend to emit carbon,” Gao said.

The study concludes “greening” trends matter more to “carbon uptake”—how much carbon plants can capture—than changes in the length of seasons.

“There are some places where we have more leaves than we used to have, particularly at the higher latitudes,” Gray said. “There are also some places where spring might be coming early, and fall might be coming late. These changes are all affecting the amount of photosynthesis that is going on, but the amount of leaves plants are producing has a stronger association with carbon uptake than changes in growing season length.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Early spring good for plants, bad for bees: studies | CTV News

Davis and his family have been in the business for 15 years, and since the incident, he claims that half of his bee colonies have dropped dead.

Author: Ashley Bornancin

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The owner of Hilltop Honey Farm in East Palestine said that since the train derailment three weeks ago, he’s worried that the label on his product will deter people from buying from him.

Steve Davis said all of the honey from his 15 locations is safe to purchase and consume since it was harvested in the spring of 2022 and he and his team are working to keep their current honey safe. However, he’s concerned there will be a stigma surrounding all local East Palestine businesses.

Davis and his family have been in the business for 15 years, and since the incident, he claims that half of his bee colonies have dropped dead.

Credit: Hilltop Honey Farm

Davis explains honey bees can travel up to 5 miles, so one contamination can affect honey farmers in the span of several miles.

“I believe it was from the ones that were closer. They are they’re all dead, like 12 of them. The other ones that are a little bit further away, had a little bit of survival, but I’m not real sure how they’re doing,” said Davis.

He reached out to Norfolk Southern to conduct testing but said he was initially turned away since he lives two miles from the crash site.

Davis had to meet with a Texas-based law firm to hire an investigator to test his water, soil and equipment.

Davis fears the expense could be upwards of ten thousand dollars, money he just recently spent this year on new equipment.

“That’s just really heartbreaking for me, because that was a lot of money and a lot of extra work that we did,” he said. “I’m not just worried about us. We’re worried about other beekeepers.”.

10TV reached out to Norfolk Southern for comment on the situation. A representative said they will reimburse Davis for all of his water testing expenses and will work with the farm on investigating.

Connor Spielmaker, a spokesperson for Norfolk Southern provided the following response:

“Testing results on the water and air conducted by Ohio EPA as well as Norfolk Southern and other agencies has been and remains safe. Norfolk Southern remains committed to the citizens of East Palestine, our family assistance center remains open for affected residents and we will work with this resident on his concerns and reimburse him for his well water testing.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Owner of honey farm in East Palestine worried about future sales | 10tv.com

by Lund University

The proportion (estimated marginal means ± 95% confidence levels) of participants that reported having seen “many insects” in relation to flowering plant species richness in meadows. Pairwise comparisons of estimated marginal means are indicated by compact letter display, where plant species richness categories sharing a letter are not significantly different. Credit: Frontiers in Sustainable Cities (2023). DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2022.1099100

Have you made adjustments to your garden to make it more welcoming for pollinators? If so, you have probably made a valuable contribution, according to a new study from Lund University. The researchers evaluated the national “Operation: Save the Bees” campaign, and their results indicate that what private individuals do in their gardens really can make a positive difference.

The fact that pollinating insects are crucial for the functioning of ecosystems and food supply is well known. However, many pollinating species are endangered or in decline.

In 2018, The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation launched a campaign to save bees and other pollinators, aiming to get the public involved by creating more favorable environments in private gardens. The actions that were encouraged were to create a meadow, plant flowers or set up a bee hotel. Around 11,000 Swedes responded to the call, and now researchers from Lund University have evaluated the measures.

“We wanted to investigate measures that the public themselves chose to implement in their garden, and how these can be the most efficient,” says Anna Persson, researcher at Lund University and one of the people behind the study.

Older and species-rich environments best

The result show that the greatest positive effect on the number of pollinating insects was if you had a meadow with a higher number of flowering species in your garden. As for flower plantings, it was favorable if they were older and also covered a larger area. Bee hotels, in turn, were more often inhabited if they were located in flower-rich gardens, if they were older, and if the nest holes were a maximum of one centimeter in diameter.

Anna Persson believes the study is useful when giving the right instructions to those who want to make an effort for pollinators on their own.

“For example, we can show that it will pay off to create large and species-rich meadows and flower plantings, and that it is important not to give up after a few years, because the measures improve over time. This should be emphasized in future campaigns,” she says.

She also hopes that the results can inspire more people to adapt their own green space so that it becomes more favorable for insects. Gardens often cover about thirty percent of the land area in cities and towns, so garden owners as a group have the potential to contribute to urban biodiversity to a relatively high extent.

It is important to invest in the right measures

“However, the right measures must be taken. Our results can be used when giving advice on what actually makes a difference,” says Anna Persson.

The study was carried out through so-called citizen science, where private individuals reported what measures they took in their gardens, and how many insects they saw. 3,758 people responded to the researchers’ survey.

A third of Sweden’s bee species are currently red-listed, which means they are endangered.

“The situation for bees and other pollinators shows that measures to help them are important. It’s great that the campaign has attracted so much attention, and that citizen science can continue to contribute to new knowledge,” says Karin Lexén, Secretary General of The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.

Citizen research and uncertainty

Since the researchers collected the data via peoples’ own estimates, there is a great deal of uncertainty in each individual data point, says Anna Persson, but adds that one can still be confident in the results given that so many responses were received.

To verify how well the rough estimate of the number of pollinators worked, the researchers also asked the participants to count the number of flower-visiting insects during ten minutes on a sunny day in July. Just over 350 responses were received, and the results were well in line with the estimated quantities.

“Our study could be affected by so-called ‘expectation bias.’ This means that people who have taken measures and created more species-rich gardens also expect to see more insects, and thus risk reporting too high a number,” concludes Anna Persson.

The study is published in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.

More information: Anna S. Persson et al, Citizen science initiatives increase pollinator activity in private gardens and green spaces, Frontiers in Sustainable Cities (2023). DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2022.1099100

Provided by Lund University

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Citizen science initiatives increase pollinator activity in private gardens and green spaces (phys.org)

TESSA KOUMOUNDOUROS

Rose Chafer beetle pollinating cherry laurel blossoms. (Klaus Honal/Corbis Documentary/Getty Images)

Plants can go to extraordinary lengths to tempt pollinators to do their bidding. From donning female insect disguises (complete with pheromones!) to lure lustful males, oozing the stench of rotting flesh to temp hungry flies, or, most commonly, offering bribes of sweet rewards for any who visits – no lengths are too gross or pricy to spread their precious pollen.

Most pollinators visit multiple plant species, which generally isn’t a problem when there are plenty of bees, flies, and other pollen-dusted tourists to go around. But research now reveals that when pollinators become scarce these lengths could include choosing what passes for violence among plants.

Ecological theory predicts that competition due to declines in pollinators could drive plants to even more varied strategies of interactions and habitat use to allure pollinators, which would increase plant diversity.

But another theory counters that as the number of pollinators declines, so do the chances that the same pollinator will visit the same type of rarer plants, meaning more common species will outcompete them, and that would reduce biodiversity.

As this is a scenario the world is heading towards – in the face of worrying insect declines and disease impacting our closest pollinating ally, the European honey bee – a team of researchers led by Princeton University ecologist Christopher Johnson put these competing theories to the test in field experiments.

Using 80, 2.25 m² plots of paired annual plant species native to Switzerland, the researchers controlled how much pollination happened in some plots by hand. The rest had to rely on the normal environmental levels of pollination. Johnson and their team compared population and fitness measurements for each.

All five plant species used – field mustard (Sinapis arvensis), corn gromwell (Buglossoides arvensis), the common poppy (Papaver rhoeas), cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), and wild fennel (Nigella arvensis) – relied on general insect pollination, but corn gromwell could also self pollinate.

Another 22 replicate plots were enclosed, with half exposed only to one pollinator species and the rest to background environmental levels to simulate pollinator decline. For these plots, the researchers also measured floral visits by pollinators.

“For nine of ten species pairs, competition for pollinators weakened stabilizing niche differences between competitors,” Johnson and colleagues write in their paper, meaning the paired species did not strike a new balance of interactions with each other within the shared pockets of the environment when pollination was reduced.

“These results support the hypothesis that pollinators destabilize plant competition by favoring more common plant species at the expense of their rarer competitors,” the team concludes.

It seems when our incredible assortment of insect pollinators becomes scarce, each plant is in it for itself, grabbing at all the remaining pollinators’ attention at the expense of their neighbors.

The ability to breed was three times greater for the common poppy, wild fennel, and cornflower when hand-pollinated than those relying on background pollination, showing these species are naturally self-limiting in order to strike balance with their neighbors.

But these plants are only that considerate to a point: The team identified weakening of this within-species competition as a major driver for destabilizing the multi-species communities.

The result created competition imbalances and exacerbated the average fitness differences between plant species: It reduced all pairs of plant species’ ability to coexist with each other.

This could lead to the most common groups of plants exiling the rarer ones from their once thriving communities.

The researchers did not expect that this would occur so uniformly across all pairs of species. Since the study was done across a small area, and a short timescale, the researchers say that over time a new coexistence equilibrium could be established with some of the species.

Johnson and colleagues did however check to see if the pairwise interaction they measured differed when the plants were grown in more specious communities (three, four, and five species) and found that overall they did not, further supporting their conclusions.

These are concerning findings if they hold true over wider scopes. If plant communities do become so easily unstable as pollinators decline, broader interactions between species and their implications will be difficult to predict. At least some understanding of these will be crucial in our attempts to maintain as much biodiversity as we can as conditions worsen.

Meanwhile, we can all help reduce further insect declines by growing native plants, reverting lawns to natural habitats, avoiding pesticides, herbicides, and other toxic chemicals, limiting outside lighting, and supporting groups and leaders who actually take these tiny but critical cogs of our living world into consideration.

This research was published in Nature.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Plants Will Start Battling For Pollinators as Insects Decline. Losing Could Mean Exile (sciencealert.com)

By Rachel Ramirez

Scientists have found a clear link between extreme land use and the climate crisis in pushing insect species toward collapse.

(CNN)Extreme land use combined with warming temperatures are pushing insect ecosystems toward collapse in some parts of the world.

The study, published in the journal Nature, identified for the first time a clear and alarming link between the climate crisis and high-intensity agriculture and showed that, in places where those impacts are particularly high, insect abundance has already dropped by nearly 50%, while the number of species has been slashed by 27%.

These findings raise huge concerns, according to Charlotte Outhwaite, the lead author on the study and researcher at the University College London, given the important role of insects in local ecosystems, pollination and food production, and noted that losing insects could threaten human health and food security.

“Three quarters of our crops depend on insect pollinators,” Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex in the UK, previously told CNN. “Crops will begin to fail. We won’t have things like strawberries.

“We can’t feed 7.5 billion people without insects.”

Outhwaite said their findings “may only represent the tip of the iceberg,” because of the limited amount of evidence in some regions.

“But I think there are also a lot of consequences that we probably don’t really know because obviously there are so many different kinds of insects,” Outhwaite told CNN. “They do so many important things. We just don’t have a strong handle on how much we rely on them for certain situations.”

Tom Oliver, a professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading, said in a statement that scientists don’t yet know when insect populations could reach a point of no return, where their losses would be too great to overcome.

“In terms of a potential tipping point where the loss of insects causes whole ecosystems to collapse, the honest answer is we just don’t know when the point of no return is,” said Oliver, who was not involved in the study. “We know that you can’t just keep losing species without, ultimately, causing a catastrophic outcome.”

He likened the gradual loss to removing rivets from an airplane, which you can’t keep doing “without it eventually falling out of the sky.”

To read the complete article go to;

Insects have declined by 50% in parts of world because of human activity, study shows – CNN

By MOLLY GUTHREY | mguthrey@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press

A No Mow May sign in the St. Paul yard of Gretchen Cudak of St. Paul on Thursday, April 28, 2022. By not mowing in May and letting dandelions, clover, creeping Charlie and other flowers bloom, people are creating habitat for pollinators, including bees, and other wildlife. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

On a chilly morning in late April, Amanda Lynch planted a city-issued sign in her family’s front yard.

“No Mow May,” it proclaimed.

It was her dad’s idea to take part in this environmental initiative in West St. Paul, but the city and her father have her full support.

“I like it because I don’t have to mow the yard,” said Lynch, 20, with a laugh. “It’s a good idea, though — to give the lawn the opportunity to start growing and get everything started.”

POLLINATOR PERKS

No Mow May’s purpose is actually for pollinators, and it’s a blossoming trend across the U.S. — including city-led initiatives in West St. Paul, Edina and New Brighton.

What’s the purpose of doing less — to let the grass grow shaggy; to let the dandelions grow; to hold off on that spring cleanup of leaves?

“No Mow May is a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of spring flowers for bees,” said Elaine Evans, extension educator at the University of Minnesota. “In May, many bees are coming out of hibernation and need flowers to feed themselves and their babies. The main purpose of No Mow May is to encourage people to let spring flowers in their lawns bloom before mowing.”

The bees needing an assist include the endangered rusty patched bumblebee, which became Minnesota’s state bee in 2019.

“The rusty patched bumblebee used to be common in Minnesota but is now very rare,” Evans says. “It is threatened with extinction, but still can be found in many parts of Minnesota, with many recent sightings in the Twin Cities. By creating a pollinator haven in your yard, you can help the rusty patched bumble bee recover.”

Planting pollinator-friendly flowers is an idea people are familiar with, but it’s probably going to take a lot of signs to spread the message to Americans that they should consider letting their yards grow more wild — to let the creeping Charlie creep, to let the clover flourish.

“It’s all about education,” says Gretchen Cudak, a member of the St Paul Garden Club. “We all need to refocus and regroup about what we think is normal and good — because what we think is normal and good is not normal and good for pollinators. The bees are really suffering.”

A BRITISH IMPORT

The idea for No Mow May took root across the pond: The annual campaign by Plantlife, a conservation group in England, inspired the city of Appleton, Wis., to pass a resolution to do the same, as well as Lawrence University of Appleton. Both the city and the university are affiliates of the Xerces Society, an Oregon-based environmental organization (named after an extinct butterfly) that organizes programs called Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA.

No Mow May has slowly been spreading, like honey on toast.

“It just went viral this year,” says Laura Rost, coordinator for Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA.

It’s not just about lawns and it’s not just about May, though.

“We think of No Mow May as one thing you can do; a starting point to helping bees,” Rost says. “The month of May might not be the best month for all areas of the country. But studies show it’s a very important part of the year for many bees. If you mow less or not at all when they are emerging, you tend to see a higher number of species of bees and a higher abundance of bees overall, if there are flowers are in the grass.”

Flowers … in the grass?

Elaine Evans, extension educator at the University of Minnesota, recommends four actions that anyone can take to help pollinators:

• Plant flowers: Whether it is a pot, a patch, or a prairie, every bit helps. Keep those flowers free of pesticides and look for plants that are native to your area. (Consider adding violets and pussy toes. For blooms after May, add self-heal, ground plum, lanceleaf tickweed or calico American aster. If you want to do even more for pollinators in May, plant native spring blooming flowers, trees, and shrubs, like pussy willows, serviceberries, and bluebells.)
• Create homes: You can create safe spaces for pollinators by leaving some messy corners in your yard with leaves, logs, and standing stems. A diversity of native plants can be homes for caterpillars.
• Take climate action: Plant trees and native grasses with deep roots. Switch to clean energy sources. Support sustainable farming. Our future food supply depends on pollinators and they depend on a stable climate.
• Collect data: By taking photos of pollinators and sharing them on the app iNaturalist, you can help scientists track and protect them.

Get more local info and resources at the University of Minnesota’s Bee Lab at Beelab.umn.edu and the Minnesota Bumble Bee Atlas.

To read the whole article go to: https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/30/no-mow-may-pollinators-grass-flowers-bees/

The president can set a powerful example for the U.S. and the world by filling the White House grounds with America’s native plants and animals

By: Desiree Narango & Max Lambert

The manicured Rose Garden at the White House as of August, 2020. Credit: Drew Angerer Getty Images

In 1908, when President Teddy Roosevelt was asked about what birds could be seen around the White House, he listed an impressive 93 species. That list included iconic Mid-Atlantic breeding birds like Eastern whip-poor-wills and Baltimore orioles. Unfortunately, due to habitat loss and destruction, these birds and many others on Roosevelt’s list cannot be seen at the White House today. In fact, the past century has witnessed tremendous losses in mammals, amphibians, reptiles, insects, plants and literally billions of birds in just the past 50 years.

To bring back biodiversity, scientists now understand that conservation cannot be restricted to big public parks like Yosemite or Yellowstone. Since more than 60 percent of U.S land is privately owned, with much of it in cities and suburbs, conservation must also include our own yards and gardens. And as the home of a new president who is sympathetic to environmental preservation, the grounds and gardens of the White House—a national park in their own right—are an excellent place to start. The White House and President’s Park should be managed, not as a political football but as a celebration of our nation’s natural identity and as an exemplar of conservation stewardship.

And what better way to celebrate that identity than by filling the White House grounds with America’s native plants and animals? How we landscape our cities and suburbs shapes whether we also support biodiversity, enrich our lives and well-being and adapt to climate change. We can restore America’s endangered songbirds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators by prioritizing native plants over invasive species and lawns, and by reducing pesticides and mowing. Adding small ponds provides new homes for threatened aquatic critters like frogs, turtles and dragonflies. Each tree or pond we include for wildlife also stores carbon, reduces flooding, cleans water and air, cools summer temperatures and improves human health. The White House should exemplify all of this, for the president and for the American people.

If the Biden-Harris administration needs planting suggestions, they can look to the beautiful native wildflower genus Bidens which supports more than 10 percent of the region’s pollen-specialist native bee species. (The name Bidens, which dates to the 18th century, is unrelated to the president.) Native shrubs like cherry viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) provide safe havens for nests and abundant insects and fruit for the wood thrush, Washington, D.C.’s official bird.

Because the capital is a major stopping point for migrating monarch butterflies, milkweed, asters and goldenrods in the Rose Garden would benefit America’s most famous cross-continent migration. Moreover, revitalizing the biodiversity value of President’s Park’s 82 acres would offer educational opportunities and natural experiences for visiting children along the White House’s walking trails by showcasing the beauty and value of American nature.

Over time, the White House has been an evolving landscape that changes across administrations and serves as an inspirational symbol of American values and policies. Presidential spouses Ellen Wilson, Eleanor Roosevelt and Michelle Obama all used the White House gardens for speeches and events and to inspire American initiatives like victory gardens and healthy diets. Like the administrations of Wilson, Roosevelt and Obama, the Biden-Harris administration should complement its patriotic environmental agenda by infusing a conservation ethos into the most iconic residential parcel on Earth to inspire Americans to protect our nation’s biodiversity at home.

Landscaping the White House to celebrate our national natural identity also signals to world leaders the value of conservation in overlooked green spaces, public or private. By discussing critical geopolitical issues with our president against a backdrop of D.C.’s unique ecosystems and species, influential diplomats worldwide may be inspired to preserve their own nations’ natural identities.

There are already examples of U.S. embassies modifying their grounds in response to federal commitments to celebrate local biodiversity (with pollinator-friendly design, for example) and inspire personal conservation ethics.

Biodiversity loss, like climate change and food insecurity, is a national emergency.

The Biden-Harris administration is embarking on the most ambitious environmental agenda proposed to date, with plans to address climate change, revolutionize clean energy economies, prioritize environmental justice and reactivate America’s commitment to global environmental agreements. One of Biden’s stated goals is to conserve 30 percent of America’s land and water for biodiversity by 2030; a grand challenge given the scale of this conservation initiative must rely on complementary efforts in parks and private lands.

At the same time, the administration has proposed a once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure bill, parts of it which may be seemingly at odds with these environmental goals. The reality is that reimagining how we reinvigorate existing infrastructure and build modern, cutting-edge developed spaces can be done to bolster biodiversity while also enhancing our economy and supporting society. Biden should start this work right at the White House.

To “Build Back Better,” the Biden-Harris administration must build sustainable cities and suburbs. Doing so will combat the biodiversity crisis and also improve climate resilience and societal well-being. Restoring the ecological integrity of the president’s home is an opportunity to rethink the role that everyone plays in conservation and showcase to America and the world our country’s commitment to the environment. It is time to heal ourselves and our homes and ensure that everyone, including and especially those who live in urban communities of color and low-income communities, has access to green spaces and wildlife. The White House should be re-landscaped as the first home of America’s conservation vision to protect biodiversity where we live.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biodiversity-conservation-should-start-in-biden-rsquo-s-backyard/

A massive collection of dried flower specimens demonstrates that climate change disrupts the timing of spring blooms.

Getty

By: Olivia Box 

The time of year when a flower blooms is influenced by many factors, including genetics, weather, and pollinators. But climate change is causing bloom times to happen earlier across ecosystems. According to several Boston-area scientists and curators at the Arnold Arboretum, over the past hundred years the temperature has risen 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit in the city. This is not just making the city a hotter place for people to live—it’s getting warmer for the plants, too.

Abraham J. Miller-Rushing and a team of four researchers at the arboretum wanted to determine if the city’s increasing temperatures were affecting flowering times. As they note, “The most convincing evidence that living organisms are responding to global warming comes from flowering plants, which are especially responsive to warm weather in the spring.”

The team used the arboretum’s extensive collection of herbarium specimens, which include dried flowers and harvest records alongside their living specimens, to analyze the effects of climate change on plants in Boston.

Eight days may not seem like a lot, but for a plant that flowers for three weeks, that’s a large portion of its flowering cycle.

This is a particularly interesting issue for cities. While climate change is already causing increased temperatures in many areas, the high density of paved surfaces in urban areas absorbs sunlight and radiates it as heat, and there is less plant cover to remove heat or create shade. This can cause additional warming (called the urban heat island effect), which makes the temperature in Boston hotter than surrounding towns might be.

The collection at the arboretum is composed of 80,000 dried plant specimens, and each sample includes the name of the species and what stage of growth the plant was at when it was harvested: flowering, past bloom, or producing seeds. These pristine records allowed the scientists to compare the samples to modern plants on the grounds of the arboretum.

They found that since the 1980s, plants in the area were flowering eight days sooner than in previous years, which they attributed to rising temperatures. Eight days may not seem like a lot, but for a plant that flowers for three weeks, that’s a large portion of its flowering cycle. Most importantly, this study highlights the value of herbariums and citizen-science record keeping in defining how climate change could affect our backyards.

Bottom of Form

The timing of flowering affects more than just the plant itself. It can elicit a ripple effect that impacts many other species. During flowering, pollinators may rely on these flowers for food sources, while other species may feed on parts of the plants. This synchrony, once disrupted, can affect all of these species permanently.

Miller-Rushing and his team focused on one herbarium collection in one city—but it’s just the beginning. As the researchers write, “To build a more geographically complete picture [of climate change], scientists must seek new sources of data. Botanical gardens and museums might be those sources.”