What’s the buzz
How human behavior impacted bumble bees becoming endangered
Sustainability
Bumble bee facts
Explain how dependent we are on bumble bees (them dying means us dying)
How we can help (reduce negative human impacts)
Explain how many different species can live in one area (carrying capacity)
Careers
Trade offs
People interested in pollinators can have paid research opportunities or they can be a habitat and education coordinator, gardener, wildlife and plant conservationalist, or an assistant in crop maintenance
Paid research opportunities: such as Working with the usda farm service agency, pollinator partnership, and HEC research projects
Habitat and education coordinators: someone who’s job is to educate others about the habitat and pollinators
Gardener: an individual who maintains a garden
wildlife and plant conservationalist: someone who protects wild plant and animal species and their habitat
Assistant in crop matinence: someone who helps to maintain crops
Pros
Cons
Natural adaption: without the help of bees or other pollinators, plant species would not be able to reproduce, or evolve, making them more vulnerable to things they could of avoided through natural adaption
Better crops: bees and other pollinators help crops flourish by providing the pollination they need to create a seed or fruit
More food: pollinators help to produce 86% of the food security. Without them, the food security of many people and counties would be threatened
Pesticides: pesticides are used to get rid of bugs that carry diseases, and since bees can get many different diseases, some people find it nessecary to use more pesticides to preserve their crops.
Land use: even though saving bees is important, many people find that the land used to create new habitats for bees, or the land holding existing ecosystems, could be used in a more beneficial way
Pollination can result in the destruction of a plant: whether its bees having to bite through the corolla of the plant to get to the nectar, too many bees visiting one flower, causing it to be (over pollinated), or “alien” bees helping invasive species to over take an ecosystem, this essential process can be the down fall for plants as well
Economical: bees and other pollinating insects are currently improving the food production of more than 2 billion small farms worldwide. Regions already facing food shortages and nutritional deficiencies will be hit the hardest by the global decline of bees and other pollinators
Environmental: pollination is essential for the adaption, reproduction, and survival of any plant species. Without pollinators 75% of flowering plants would become endangered or go extinct.
Cultural: pollinator extinction can lead to human extinction. No pollinators no pollination, no pollination no plants, no plants no animals, no animals no humans.
What does the future look like for bees?
Habitats for bees mean undisturbed places for nests, hives, colonies and larvae. We actually compete with bees for home and food. If a prairie is plowed to plant acres upon acres of soybeans, pollinators in that field loose their lovely hood. If a forest is cleared for a housing development or a golf course, the flowers wild bees depend on go too. If you weed and mow your own yard, you too are contributing to pollinator decline
Herbicides, like RoundUp, are preventing many bees from fining food in fields, which is causing them to starve and die. The national Agricultural Statistiv Service has also reported that the bee population has dwindled down by at least 50% in the last decade, and glyphosphate may be at least partly to blame . Researchers believe the chemical may be poisoning entire colonies and even impacting bees ability to pollinate
insecticides that stop hungry bugs from eating crops can also mean bad news for pollinators. It’s tough to study the specific role of insecticides, because any given bee might be exposed to multiple compounds at varying levels. These factors interact with other threats like poor nutrition and disease, so its nearly impossible to identify a single direct cause.
The Rocky Mountain bumble bee and glacier lily climate mismatch accurs when the Lilly’s start appearing before the bumblebeees awaken in the spring because it has warmed that much in the past 30 years, which causes the pollinator and plant to be out of step
The bees may not be the only ones who are suffering as a result of RoundUp use either. Farmers rely on bees to pollinate their crops, and about $20 billion worth of food is pollinated by bees every year. If the bee population continues to decrease as dramatically as it is right now, less and less food is going to be produced, eventually leading to a food shortage for humans.
Humans) have caused climate mismatch in many different ways, one of them being from burning subsidized fossil fuels. The rising temperature has triggered a timing, or phenological mismatch. The Rocky Mountain bumblebee and the glacier lily climate-driven mismatch were first reported on over a decade ago.
The reason this is harmful to the Bumble bee is because they use the nectar from the flower to create their food for the colder months when they are unable to go out and forage for food. If the bees don’t collect enough nectar while they can there wont enough food for their hive later on
Homeowners, community members, school gardeners, farmers, and pretty much everyone can help to protect bees and other pollinators.
A number of projects have sought to raise awareness of the declining population of pollinators. The beedapest hotel is a project aimed to raise awareness in a quirky way. There are other projects such as the hive and another project that aims to see 50,000 bee murals painted around the world. But scientists are looking at more new-age ways to look at the problem
Bees are enesential part in every ecosystem, which means that many different species, including humans, depend on them a lot.
While we could probably live without golf courses and lawns, we do needs homes and ood. Planning developments, gardens, and farms with pollinators in mind can make a big difference. That means leaving ditches, parks , lots and lawns in their natural weedy state whenever possible. If the weeds really must be cleared, plant flowers in their place instead of grass
Farmers have an extra challenge. They need to ensure their crops have ample room to grow and don’t get choked out by compete in plants, but plowing or spraying stubborn weeds destroys habitats. Pollinator habitats can be managed within and around farms by planting cover crops, practicing crop rotations, or managing less-fertile land as refuges for insects. Technologies that help increase yield per acre may also help prevent more prairies, forests, or wetlands from being converted into farms
The bottom line: anything designed to kill insects — from commercial insecticides to organic alternatives cant be good for bees. On the other hand, banning specific pesticides may not be the best approach. Farmers have to control pests somehow, and alternatives might not prove any friendlier to pollinators or farm workers
Bumble bees flap their wings over 200 times per second, thins comes in handy during the summer when working bees are placed outside the hives entrance to act like an air conditioning system to keep the hive at exactly 86 degrees Fahrenheit
Bumble bees have an extremely fast metabolism, so they have to eat continuously. Dave Goulson states in his book “ A sting in the Tale- My adventure with bumble bees” that a bumble bee with a full stumach is only 40 minutes away from starvation.
Bees, like all insects, are covered in an oily film that makes them waterproof. When they land on a flower, they leave their chemical signature behind. Other bees can smell these oily footprints and know not to land on the flower since the nectars already been pillaged
Bumble bees don’t have arteries or veins, instead all of their organs sit in a pool of blood inside their body. However, their heart does pulse blood through a long tube, which serves as a sort of circulatory system for the bumble bee
Bumble bees have five eyes. Three of their eyes are smaller and located on the top of their head, and the other two are on the front of their head. They can see UV light but cant see the color red
Most importantly, plant a wide variety of native plants that provide continuos blooms throughout the season. These little pellets here are called seed bombs.....
Talk about what the seed bombs include, how you made them, when and how to use them, how they work, why they’re good
Farmers and rural landowners can include pollinator habitat to encourage crop pollination and maintain healthy ecosystems
You can also provide places for bumble bees to nest, while making sure not to disturb nests that you find. Bumble bee colonies are often underground, or in compost, rock walls, hollow logs and under bunch grasses.
You can buy raw honey from a local beekeeper, and not hives that are treated with harmful chemicals. A few guidelines for this is if you find it in a grocery store and it says “made in China” don’t buy. Also if it doesn’t clearly state that its pure, raw, or untreated with chemicals, don’t buy it.
Planting more trees is also very beneficial to bees. When trees bloom it provides bees with hundreds of blossoms to feed from. Trees also provide essential habitat to bees as well. Tree leaves provide nesting material for bees, and their natural wood cavities make excellent shelters
Mammals such as bears, squirrels, and the honey badger depend on bees and other pollinators for their food supply. Animals that rely on particular plant species would become extinct if those plants ceased to exist. For example, many cattle used for milk and meat eat mainly alfalfa and lupine, both of which need to be insect pollinated. With less food available to feed large animals, there would be less meant and milk production, so the human diet would change significantly.
Along with the lack of meat the death of pollinators would bring, nearly all fruit and most vegetable species would be lost as well. At least 30% of the worlds food crops, and 90 percent of wild plants require insect involment, so we would have fewer food choices— or we would have to find an alternative way to pollinate plants.
Rapeseed, or canola, is grown to produce fuel as well as being used for cooking oil and foodstuffs. Without pollination there would be less production of biofuel, which means we'd rely more on fossil fuels and run out of them sooner. Cotton is pollinated by bees and other insects, so without bees there'd be fewer choices for clothing material; a greater reliance on man-made fabrics would further deplete fossil-fuel sources.
Many medicines are plant-based, so if bees become extinct we would lose our source of some pharmaceuticals. Morphine -- the basis of most pain-killers -- is extracted from opium poppies. Opium poppies can self-pollinate, but according to studies by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and michigan state university, there's a better yield from cross-pollinated plants.. Many other plants used in pharmaceuticals also require pollination by insects.
Carrying capacity describes the maximum number of individuals or species a specific environment's resources can sustain for an indefinite period of time without degrading it. Since bees are an important piece of most environments, them living in harmony with the different species within the environment is cruicial. There are four major factors affect the carrying capacity of an environment.
Food Availability:
Food availability in any habitat is crucial for the survival of all species. Bees harvest nectar and pollen from flowering plants, and they use this to feed themselves. If there are limited amounts of flowering plants in an ecosystem, whether it be because of habitat destruction or another species in the habitat, bees will not be able to survive.
Water:
the larger the animal, the more water is required to sustain the animal's organ systems. Even though bees are quite small, they still require water to survive. Besides using the water to help with food digestion, control body waste, and regulate body tempeture, they use the water to regulate the tempeture of their hive as well. They also use it to de-crystallize honey which they use to feed their larva.
Ecological Conditions:
Conditions within or close to an environment also affect its carrying capacity. Pollution, natural disasters, such as a hurricane or a flood, and human activity can all affect the carrying capacity of a specific ecosystem. The inability of the land to sustain either crops or plants, elimates the food, shelter, and in some case water sources a bee needs to survive
Space:
Animals need a place to shelter from poor conditions, and to provide a place for reproduction. If there are not enough viable places for a nest or hive, the bees will have no protection during the winter, or protection from their predators such as many species of birds, bears and foxes.
Mediated Matter, a group from the Massachusetts Institue of Technology in the United States recently revealed the first bee born in captivity. The Synthetic Apiary takes beees out of their natural habitat and places them into a specially designed apiary: stark white, temperature controlled and pesticide-free. While these researchers have sought to take bees away from danger, researcher at Harvard a re developing a robotic bee able to withstand the harsh environment
Robo-bees were first introduced in 2013. Created by Harvard university researchers led by engineering professor Robert wood, its predicted that the bots will be fully functional after 20 or more years of research, and could possibly be used to replace the struggling bee population as agricultures primary pollinators
Industrial agriculture, parasites, pathogens, and climate change all contribute to the death of the worlds pollinators. In particular, insecticides pose a direct risk to bees and other wild pollinators. In 1945, there were 4.5 milllion bees in the United States. Today, there are less then 2 million. It’s been a subtle decline over time, but one that has dramatically accelerated over the past 7 years
History
The earliest recorded Bee was found in Myanmar. It was found encased in amber and has been dated as 100 million years old. It's likely that the bee originated in the Far East. In those early days, the bees were more like wasps, eating other insects rather than nectar and pollen. It's unclear exactly when bees decided to become vegetarian but considering the choice between eating a fly and some delicious, sweet tasting nectar from a cherry tree in full bloom, it seems like a good decision.
For early man, discovering honey was as life changing as the discovery of fire. For the early hunter gatherers who hadn't yet developed the beesuit and veil, collecting honey was as painful as picking up a burning stick. However, the bravery was worth it because it seems humankind had, in preparation, already developed a sweet tooth.
Honey was the most important sweetener for food and alcoholic drinks in ancient times. So important were these activities that parents named their children after the bees. Both Deborah and Melissa mean "bee", in Hebrew and Greek respectively. It has been sought as an antiseptic and sweetener for at least 100,000 years. In Ancient Egypt and the Middle East, it was used to embalm the dead.