8b

• Worldwide pollinator declines
• Importance of pollinators


  • Consider human impacts on key ecosystem services
  • Understand the importance of ecological data
  • Honeybees and colony collapse disorder
  • Commercial trade
• Adult bees vanished, but the honey and brood were left in the hives
• Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)


  The term used to describe the phenomenon of adult bees vanishing from hives
• How to deal with CCD

  1. Survey (and sample) data collection

  2. Analysis of existing samples

  3. Research to identify factors affecting honey bee health, including attempts to recreate the CCD symptomology

  4. Mitigate and preventative measures

  
• Historical records suggest major losses around 1 year in every 10
• No standard monitoring and not easy to compare data
• Requires long-term and reliable data
• Honeybees have declined by around 25% since 1985 in Europe
• Bee keepers report losses of 36% in Europe
• Long term data from Germany (since 1945) suggests c. 30% losses every few years
• Major further losses in 2008 attributed to pesticides in Europe
• No extreme losses otherwise since 2004 in Europe
• We still don't know what causes CCD
• There have been numerous hypotheses linked to all manner of possible causes or combinations of factors
• Could easily be multiple different issues for different localities
• Some ideas have been assessed and tested but results still uncertain
• Genetic data from the environment suggests 'Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus' but no clear link shown
• Protein data suggests the fungus Nosema
• Mass spectrometry of proteins suggests a combination of Nosema and viruses
• Pesticides have been suggested by no clear link
• The strongest hypothesis (though far from certain) is the Varroa mites
• May well be a combination of Varroa mites introduced from Asian bees species, with viruses and other pathogens
• Pesticides (including those used to kill Varroa) may also be responsible
• What about how domestic bees are managed?
• Young bees are typically poor foragers

  Stress (e.g. pathogens, pesticides) cause high mortality of bees, so there will be high numbers of young bees
• High numbers of young bees


  Lowering the average age of the foragers further and causing a feedback loop
• The colony can then run out of adult foragers

  Leaving only the queen and brood behind which cannot survive
• Between 1947 and 2005 there was a decline from 5.9 to 2.4 million hives in the US
• Varroa was first introduced in the 1980s
• Huge rise in demand for the use of bees as pollinators, especially for nut crops
• By 2005 had to import bees because the available hives did not meet the demands of farmers
• Even before CCD, it was estimated that the decline would lead to a complete loss of managed bees in decades
• Pollination as a business

  Hives are rented out to farmers. Huge numbers are put onto trucks and transported to the fields and then after a few days, moved to the next site
• Value of honeybee pollination of almonds in California estimated at $16 bn million in 2016 (up from 1 bn in 2000)

  
• Partly as a result of a huge increase in demand for almonds
• Not enough hives are available in California (c. one million needed)
• Some 65% of these are imported from other states
• Transport will stress the bees

  Loss of foragers
• Bees will frequently move between hives

  Spreading parasites and viruses