Bee Colonies Continue to Collapse
Posted on May 3, 2010 Comments (2)
The activity to find the causes of Colony Collapse Disorder provides a view into the scientific inquiry process of complex living systems. Finding answers is not easy.
Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe
The decline of the country’s estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.
…
It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee pollination.
…
Potential causes range from parasites, such as the bloodsucking varroa mite, to viral and bacterial infections, pesticides and poor nutrition stemming from intensive farming methods.
…
“We believe that some subtle interactions between nutrition, pesticide exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies,” said Jeffery Pettis, of the ARS’s bee research laboratory.
…
“It’s getting worse,” he said. “The AIA survey doesn’t give you the full picture because it is only measuring losses through the winter. In the summer the bees are exposed to lots of pesticides. Farmers mix them together and no one has any idea what the effects might be.” Pettis agreed that losses in some commercial operations are running at 50% or greater.
High Levels of Miticides and Agrochemicals in North American Apiaries: Implications for Honey Bee Health (open access paper on the topic, March 2010)
Related: Solving the Mystery of the Vanishing Bees – Virus Found to be One Likely Factor in Bee Colony Colapse Disorder – Bye Bye Bees
Categories: Life Science, Science, Students
Tags: bees, economy, food, Life Science, open access paper, Science, scientific inquiry, why
2 Responses to “Bee Colonies Continue to Collapse”
Leave a Reply
July 4th, 2010 @ 8:56 am
[…] Bee Colony Collapse Continues – Virus Found to be One Likely Factor in Bee Colony Collapse Disorder – President Obama […]
February 25th, 2012 @ 10:26 am
[…] Bee Colonies Continue to Collapse (2010) – Continuing Bee Colony Collapse Disorder (2009) – Scientists Search for Clues To Bee […]