The Importance of Bees Can you imagine a world where bees are not a part of our ecosystem? Many people know of bees as a bug that stings you on a sunny day but bees do more than that. Bees are the main insect that provide a big food source Bees are also known for pollinating many crops. Many of these crops include various things that individuals enjoy. Such as blueberries, cherries, apples, mangos and many more. Bees are also the main reason why many flowers have a food source as well. Meaning that bees are a big role in the ecosystem because it makes them diverse. Throughout the years many bees have been disappearing. This scientific term has been known as colony collapse disorder. Colony collapse disorder is the disappearance of bee workers …show more content…
Bees have a process that gives many seeds to a plant and from there the plants produce food crops. So without these pollinators many plants wouldn't be able to make food that everyone eats. In the words of the National Resources Defense Council “bees help at least 30% of the world's crops and 90% of our worlds plants to thrive”. Bees spent most of their life collecting pollen and giving plants the ability to fertilize so it can grow and produce food. I asked the students at West Mecklenburg High School if they knew that bees provide ⅓ of the foods we eat and the chart below shows their …show more content…
Being biodiversity is the variability of life on other species and plants. What bees do that makes them biodiverse is giving plants the ability to make to make their own food by pollinating them. They also have a role in pollinating crops that give humans food. Another example of them being biodiverse is them giving other animals food, like how they give bears honey to eat. Also there is many birds and small mammals that eat seeds and fruits that have been pollinated by bees themselves. Alison Benjamin from The Guardian Why Are Bees Important states that “around 400 different types of plants need bees and other insects to pollinate them to increase their yields and quality.” This means that bees are being depended on by other living things. Other than food, they are known for pollinating cotton and cotton is needed to make some clothes. Without any knowledge of this I asked high school students at West Meck if the think that we’ll be able to live without bees in our ecosystem. The chart below shows their
It is not unusual for bees to die or colonies to be lost, but the nature and extent reported in the year 2006 was alarming. Statistics gathered in the United States alone show that 50-90% of the bees have been lost so far, due to this scientific phenomenon (Cox-Foster et al., 2007, p. 284). Honeybees play a very major role in the pollination of plants and therefore these huge losses have become a serious concern. There are many reasons that have been floated and acclaimed to be behind CCD and they include pesticides, parasites, electromagnetic radiation, malnutrition, climatic changes, and urban sprawl, among many others.... ...
The frightening truth is our little pollen buddies are losing their numbers by the millions. Bees are essential to the ecosystem, mainly due to the pollination that they provide to many crops ( “ First” ). Bees pollinate during most of their life which is why they are so vital for most crops to produce seeds. They have hairs on their legs which, gather the pollen on the crops and allow for viable seeds. While some plants can pollinate through other natural ways, a study in the United States concluded that “39% of crops were highly dependent on bees for pollination” ( “First” ). Considering the amount of food that we as
“If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.” This statement questionably from the brilliant scientist Albert Einstein may evidently be right. In my class we were asked to pick an issue to research about, so I chose colony collapse disorder because I believe this an overlooked epidemic. UDSA reported “Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a serious problem threatening the health of honey bees and the economic stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the United States. Despite a number of claims in the general and scientific media, a cause or causes of CCD have not been identified by researchers.”
Just how important are honey bees to the ecosystem? Typically, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Honeybees pollinate eighty percent of our crops, or about a third of our diet. Honeybees cross-pollinate different plant species, by carrying pollen, which it uses to spread throughout an area of flowers. On a larger scale, one bee colony is able to pollinate 300 million flowers each day (Greenpeace). Grains, like rice and wheat, are primarily populated by wind, however, the healthiest foods, such as fruit, vegetables and nuts are pollinated by bees. In order for humankind to grow the honeybees must be able to live.
All around the world honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate, according to the documentary Vanishing of the Honeybees. This film features two commercial bee keepers and their fight to preserve their bee numbers. David Hackenburg was the first commercial bee keeper to go public the bee population was decreasing. Approximately two billions bees have vanished and nobody knows the reason why. Honeybees are used all across America to help pollinate monoculture crops like broccoli, watermelon, cherries, and other produce. Without the honeybees the price for fresh and local produce would be too much money. According, to this film commercial bee keeper’s help fifteen billion dollars of food get pollinated by commercial
How about fruits, vegetables, coffee, even shampoo or lotion? Our livestock depend on bee-pollinated plants like grain. Poorly pollinated plants produce fewer fruits and seeds leading to higher prices (New Agriculturist, n.d.). Some crops are entirely dependent on pollinators such as almonds and others are 90 percent dependent like blueberries and cherries (ABF, 2015). Bees give us honey and we use this honey in food, shampoo, and moisturizers (Mercola, 2015). Bees pollinate 70 out of our 100 major crops; that includes apples, cucumbers, pumpkins, and many more. Our bees are dying at the highest rates ever recorded: 42 percent of the United States bee colonies collapsed in 2015 (NRDC, 2015). 50 to 80 percent of the worlds food supply is directly affected by honeybee pollination (Pennsylvania Apiculture Inc., 2011). Reduced crop pollination will make food more expensive and can even make some crops harder to grow successfully (Worland,
Others include birds, butterflies, and the wind; however, honey bees, by far, are the best at pollinating plants. Collecting pollen is their whole life’s purpose, according to Michigan State University’s article, “Native Plants and Ecosystem Services”. Over one hundred forty three million acres of plants in America are sprayed with a bee-killing insecticide that has been banned in Europe by the European Food Safety Authority (Sarich). Promote ecological farming, and ban all bee-harming pesticides.
The first reports of a massive number of bees dying off were reported in the 1990’s, but the disappearances did not gain much attention until the late 2000’s. Scientists were baffled as a large number of seemingly healthy bees abandoned their hives and never returned. The issue of the disappearing bees became so severe that one third of all the honeybee colonies in the United States were lost, and scientists still could not pinpoint an exact cause for the deaths of so many bees, however they were able to come up with a few possible theories. Deeming the decrease in bees, the Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD for short, researchers believed that the mass disappearance could have been caused by a number of interwoven factors, one of which is global warming. Changing climates and weather patterns due to global warming causes certain species of flowers to bloom either earlier or later than usual, which means that bees are not always provided with the pollen and nectar they desire when they emerge from hibernation, and in addition to this, global warming has been known to cause harsh winters and extremely hot summers which adds stress to the honey bee’s life (Bee Facts).
The disappearance of honey bees is baffling scientists everywhere. Although most people see bees as useless annoying insects, they play an important role in the eco-system. Without bees, agricultural business would cease to exist, so it is vital that bees are saved. Currently, about one-third of the honey bees on the United states have disappeared. It seems that within a few days of having a good, healthy colony of bees, most of the adult population disappears. They can't even find any bodies near the hive. Scientists nicknamed this as CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder). Bees have been disappearing all over the globe. Countries such as Portugal, Poland, Central America, and South America have all reported cases of the phenomenon. When bees get sick, they sacrifice themselves and leave the colony to die to lessen possibility of spreading the disease or affliction to the rest of the hive. What is unique about CCD though, is the sheer number of bees leaving the hive.
...our fruits and vegetables industries but it also affects the diary and beef industry, which needs feed for its cattle. So the scope of of impact the bee has on society is so vast that we cant afford to loose them. If honeybees completely disappeared there would be a domino effect in the food chain, and organisms that have a mutual dependent relationship with bees would suffer an extinction vortex, potentially reducing mankind to little more than a water diet. This article states a lot of information about the decline and possible solutions, which are prominent in the other sources I have mentioned. What is becoming more clear as I continue my study is that decline is widespread, that it is a domino effect of multiple drivers, and that the only way to prevent it is to change our state of global conciseness in regards to the importance of bees to our own survival.
Pollinators are very important to the environment because many plant species rely on reproduction to be carried out by pollination1. Bees are dependent on plants for pollen and nectar and in return, are the most common pollinator of plant species and around 90 percent of plants require pollination by an animal7. Bees are used in farming, both for pollinating crops and for producing honey, and the estimated value of bees to the United Kingdom is £400 million per year9. Plants are the primary producers in many food webs and, as so many are dependent on pollination in order to reproduce, a decline in pollinators would have a detrimental effect on whole ecosystems. Therefore, the declining numbers of pollinators, particularly bees, are a cause of concern because of the environmental knock-on effects.
Furthermore, these animals are essential to us since we use them to make products such as clothing and dairy products. As stated in the article by the blog, Science ABC, “Why Bee Extinction Would Mean the End of Humanity,” by Ishan Daftardar, “Herbivores, who depend on certain plant species, will be affected first. They would go extinct if plants ceased to exist. For example, many cattle used for milk and meat depend on alfalfa and lupins, both of which depend on insect pollination.” This information shows that these bees are essential to these animals and most herbivores live off of the flowers that are bred by bees.
Insects are some of the most important creatures in our world. They play a very large role in many tasks that are vital to human surviva,l like pollinating and effective decomposing. Insects have impacted science, environment, human development, and food supply in a variety of ways. Insect pollination is one of the primary beneficial functions of insects on human development.
Over the past decade bee populations have been dropping drastically. A 40% loss of honeybees happened in the U.S. and U.K. lose 45% of its commercial honeybee since 2010. This is a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which worker bees from a beehive abruptly disappear in a short time. These data are definitely not meaningless since bees are a crucial part of the reproductive cycle of many foods. The impact bees have on the agriculture and the environment is far more crucial than we may think. Crops rely on bees to assist their reproduction and bring them life. Bees are renowned in facilitating pollination for most plant life, including over 100 different vegetable and fruit crops. Without bees, there would be a huge decrease in pollination, which later result in reduce in plant growth and food supplies. On the other hand, without the pollination progressed with the assistance from bees, the types of flowers According to Dr. Albert Einstein, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination…no more men”. That’s why bees’ extinction affects people more than we ever think, and could even forebode the doom day of human race.
Biodiversity refers to wide diversity found in the living components of the earth which refers to the numerous varieties of flora and fauna including those of microorganisms too. The interaction of biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem is very important aspect of life on earth. Biodiversity helps us to understand the variations among species and also how life originated on earth. Its study helps us to understand the inter-relationship between various forms of life and their adaptation to different conditions.