Nearly 40% decline in honey bee population last winter 'unsustainable,' experts say Food prices could rise if the number of bees pollinating crops keeps dwindling. To tackle the issue and complement efforts at EU and national levels, the European Commission presented in 2018 the EU Pollinators Initiative , the first comprehensive initiative at EU level, focusing on wild pollinating insects. Your opinions are important to us. Medical Xpress covers all medical research advances and health news, Tech Xplore covers the latest engineering, electronics and technology advances, Science X Network offers the most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web. You can be assured our editors closely monitor every feedback sent and will take appropriate actions. Moreover, the government should pass policies that eliminate a broad range of pesticides by promoting organic land care. Realistic levels of exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides impair honey bees’ ability to groom mites off of their bodies, thus increasing the risk of the infectious disease known as deformed wing virus (DWV). The value of wild bee pollination for all pollinator-dependent crops would be much greater.
Another way to reverse pollinator declines is to respect plant-pollinator relationships that have evolved over millions of years. The findings suggest that adopting practices that conserve or augment wild bees, such as enhancing wildflowers and using managed pollinators other than honey bees, is likely to boost yields. At 131 farms across the United States and in British Columbia, Canada, scientists collected data on insect pollination of crop flowers and yield for apples, highbush blueberries, sweet cherries, tart cherries, almond, watermelon and pumpkin. Dr Gary Powney of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, said while the increase in key crop pollinators is "good news", species have declined overall. Aug. 18, 2020: Agricultural Stewardship and Best Management Practices to Reduce Pollinator Risk This webinar focused on efforts to mitigate risks of pesticides to bees. June 3rd – Pollinator Health Challenges: A bee’s perspective (Margarita López-Uribe) – Several bee populations are in decline around the globe. Pollinator protection policies need improvements, not only to safeguard wild pollinators but the crops they pollinate as well. Organophosphates, mainly employed in mosquito control, are highly toxic to bee and other non-target organisms, causing bee deaths upon exposure to pesticide residues on plant surfaces. Of those, apples, sweet cherries, tart cherries and blueberries showed evidence of being limited by pollination, indicating that yields are currently lower than they would be with full pollination. With EPA failing to take the most basic steps to protect declining pollinators, it is up to concerned residents to engage in state and community action and demand change. There are various bee-toxic pesticides with the main classes of pesticides including, neonicotinoids, sulfoxaflor, pyrethroids, fipronil, and organophosphates. The U.S. government has stated that bees are now dying at an environmentally unsustainable rate. However, a decline in pollinators will only affect crop yield if yield is limited by a lack of pollination. Science X Daily and the Weekly Email Newsletter are free features that allow you to receive your favorite sci-tech news updates in your email inbox. Question about the antagonism of selective pressures on pelvic morphology. Organic land management eliminates the need for toxic agricultural pesticides. In 2018, the European Commission launched the EU Pollinators Initiative, an EU-wide strategy to address the decline of pollinators across the region. Searching for sub-eV sterile neutrinos using two highly sensitive detectors. Maxime Drossart, Maxence Gérard, Beyond the Decline of Wild Bees: Optimizing Conservation Measures and Bringing Together the Actors, Insects, 10.3390/insects11090649, 11, 9, (649), (2020). The researchers in the study note, “Our findings show that pollinator declines could translate directly into decreased yields or production for most of the crops studied, and that wild species contribute substantially to [the] pollination of most study crops in major crop-producing regions.”. Research shows that residues from neonicotinoids (including seed treatments) and sulfoxaflor accumulate and translocate to pollen and nectar of treated plants, thus increasing the potential risk to pollinators. Francisco Sanchez-Bayo, Kris A.G. Wyckhuys, ‘Worldwide decline of … Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose.