Author of Article: Christy Ullrich
Publication: National Geographic News
Publication Date: February 13, 2012
Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130213-honeybee-pesticide-insect-behavior-science/
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| Photograph by John Kimbler |
This picture shows a honeybee, an insect responsible for the existence of a nearly a third of the food we eat today. Recent studies show that pesticides may be responsible for memory loss in these pollinators.
Summary:
Bees travel many miles and visit hundreds of flowers in search of pollen. They can find their way back to their hive from five miles away, and remember the location of the flowers, doing a "waggle dance" to direct other bees to the food source. A recent study by Geraldine Wright, a neuroscientist at Newcastle University, shows that not only do pesticides harm a bee's learning ability, a combination of pesticides has even more of a negative impact. The bees were fed large amounts of pesticides for three days, and their memory, both short- and long-term, was measured every ten minutes and twenty-four hours, respectively. The results showed that exposure to several different pesticides had a much greater effect than exposure to a single pesticide. Bees pollinate the flowers they visit, and are responsible for a large fraction of the food we eat. The presence of pesticides makes them more vulnerable to the effects of other pesticides, which impact their ability to find food, which results in millions of honeybees dying. This in turn reduces the amount of pollination, which directly impacts our own food resources.
Opinion/Reflection:
I think that, since honeybees are so important to the reproduction of plants, and therefore to the functioning of entire ecosystems and to our own lives, it is vital that we protect them and ensure their continued survival. Most media sources don't really mention the impact humans have on seemingly insignificant yet essential parts of our world, like the effect pesticides have on bees. Every human being on the planet needs food, and if a third of it suddenly vanshed, it would impact everyone. It's important that more people take notice of things like this.
Questions:
1. What exactly would happen if all the honeybees disappeared? What would be the immediate impact, both to humans and to wildlife? How would people deal with the change?
2. What possible alternatives could there be to using pesticides? Would not using them do more harm or good? In the short term? Long term?
3. What other similar situations exist that we don't know about? How can these be brought to greater attention?
1.) What exactly would happen if all the honeybees disappeared? What would be the immediate impact, both to humans and to wildlife? How would people deal with the change?
ReplyDeleteThe first, and probably the worst, impact of honeybee extinction would be the massive loss of pollination in the produce crops in America. It is estimated that the vegetable and fruit crops are, out of the fresh produce in America, a $14 billion dollar share. Also, beekeepers maintaining the honeybees would lose their jobs, companies relying on them would shut down, and farmers everywhere would suffer. And to state the obvious, we wouldn't have any more natural honey. In the wild, animals that depend on the bees as a food source might die off if they can't find another. To deal with the problem, people would have to introduce non-native species into their farming environment, even though that could cause even more problems.
2.) What possible alternatives could there be to using pesticides? Would not using them do more harm or good? In the short term? Long term?
Most people would suggest that organic lawn and pest products would be better than using traditional, harmful chemicals. Even though they may be safer for plants and for humans to eat, it is generally more expensive. While you'd expect people to do the right thing when they get the chance, most big companies are just trying to make a profit, and the well being of the environment, and anyone else for that matter, is not as important to them. Just look back on other disasters. The BP oil spill happened because the company took shortcuts on their inspections. And now, wealthy business people can avoid taxes through loopholes, despite our debt. It would cost the agricultural industry much more now, but it would be much better in the future. I'm not entirely sure if this would allow honeybee populations to rise again, or if the organic path will have some other harmful affect, though I highly doubt it.
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/intheworks/honeybee.htm
ReplyDeleteThis link is to an article that explains how the honeybees in our environment are not only having their memories affected by pesticides, but are almost being wiped out because of them. The pesticides introduced into bee hives were believed to be the reason that the bee populations were dropping so fast in 2006 and 2007. The large amount of pesticides that were introduced caused a massive amount of deaths in the bee colonies. This is something known as Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. CCD can really harm the environment because it would cause the honeybee population to dwindle. This could cause a lack of pollination, which means humans couldn’t get as much food. This article also explains what the EPA is doing to protect the honeybees and lower the amount of pesticides being introduced to the bees. I feel like this article really applies to this blog post.
I sent an email to Biologist Edward M. Barrows. I thought he would be a good choice of a professional to elaborate on the topic Jialin brought up. He is a professor at Georgetown University and has taught there for the past ten years. He has a B.S. Degree in biology. Also, he is the director of the GU Center for the Environment. Here is the email I sent:
ReplyDeleteHello,
My name is Nicholas and I am in a 9th grade Honors Environmental Science class. Our teacher put us in groups and has us take turns posting blogs about things happening in the environment today. One of my classmates made a post concerning bee's reaction to a pesticide, and how it could potentially impact society. I felt that you may be able to elaborate on the subject. Here is the link to the blog:
http://grass-heads.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-post-5-jialin-wang.html
Thank you for your time.
-Nick
This morning, I received an email from Edward M. Barrows. It read:
DeleteNick could you post my comment? Thanks!
First I would like to thank you for covering such a valuable topic.
In addition to Apis mellifera (Western Honey Bees, native to Eurasia and Northern Africa, not the Americas), there are thousands of other species of pollinating animals: non-Apis bees (1000s of species), flower flies (1000s), beetles (100s), butterflies (100s), moths (100s), hummingbirds (100s), and others that make Earth such a rich place. We need to know much more about pesticides and their effects on our precious pollinators, our environment, and ourselves. You can lean more about many other environmental problems by googling climate change, global warming, threats to fisheries and forests, oil spills, and so forth.
Onward for Earth! Edd Barrows, GU
Opinion: I don't particularly know a ton about pesticides and their relation to the insects and animals they come into contact with, but I did find this summary interesting. I agree that bees are in dire need of protection considering that they are vital to ecosystems, but that proposes an interesting question: how would we protect these bees? I am in complete agreement-get the pesticides out and save the bees. But in the end, it seems like preserving them would take a lot more resources than it would be saving. Or I could be completely wrong. I'm not sure, so some more research would definitely have to be put into this. I do agree, though, that saving bees is vital. I'm just simply not sure at what cost that will come.
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
1.) How much damage do you think a single pesticide does as opposed to the multiple pesticides and why?
2.) Would preserving bees do more damage than good in your opinion?
3.) Do you think pesticides have any positive effects on bees? Why?