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Because honeybees are just one of many pollinating insects whose numbers are falling dramatically. They just happen to get talked about a lot in the press becau

Because honeybees are just one of many pollinating insects whose numbers are falling dramatically. They just happen to get talked about a lot in the press because there are people with a direct economic interest in them.

tptacek 11y ago
Can you cite statistics showing that e.g. mason bee populations are collapsing?
- anon1385 11y ago
  I'm not in the US but this seems to be the biggest study there http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6127/1611 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6127/1611 >Using historic data sets, we quantified the degree to which global change over 120 years disrupted plant-pollinator interactions in a temperate forest understory community in Illinois, USA. We found degradation of interaction network structure and function and extirpation of 50% of bee species. Network changes can be attributed to shifts in forb and bee phenologies resulting in temporal mismatches, nonrandom species extinctions, and loss of spatial co-occurrences between extant species in modified landscapes. Quantity and quality of pollination services have declined through time. The historic network showed flexibility in response to disturbance; however, our data suggest that networks will be less resilient to future changes. News article: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/28/wild-bees-pollinators-crop-yields http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/28/wild-bees... Pesticides are far from the only factor, but adding that to habitat loss and climate change is hardly helping.
- mohawk 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid#Other_wildlife https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid#Other_wildlife REVIEW: An overview of the environmental risks posed by neonicotinoid insecticides http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12111/full http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12111/f... Forget about the bees, it doesn't sound like something i would like to have on my food...

tptacek 11y ago

Can you cite statistics showing that e.g. mason bee populations are collapsing?

anon1385 11y ago
I'm not in the US but this seems to be the biggest study there http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6127/1611 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6127/1611 >Using historic data sets, we quantified the degree to which global change over 120 years disrupted plant-pollinator interactions in a temperate forest understory community in Illinois, USA. We found degradation of interaction network structure and function and extirpation of 50% of bee species. Network changes can be attributed to shifts in forb and bee phenologies resulting in temporal mismatches, nonrandom species extinctions, and loss of spatial co-occurrences between extant species in modified landscapes. Quantity and quality of pollination services have declined through time. The historic network showed flexibility in response to disturbance; however, our data suggest that networks will be less resilient to future changes. News article: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/28/wild-bees-pollinators-crop-yields http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/28/wild-bees... Pesticides are far from the only factor, but adding that to habitat loss and climate change is hardly helping.
mohawk 11y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid#Other_wildlife https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid#Other_wildlife REVIEW: An overview of the environmental risks posed by neonicotinoid insecticides http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12111/full http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12111/f... Forget about the bees, it doesn't sound like something i would like to have on my food...