Leave Me the Birds and the Bees … Please
Raspberries, Rubus ideaus L, after passive self-pollination (left and middle) and open insect pollination (right). Photo by Jim Cane/Bee Research Institute
Reject the Sisphyean ideal of the well-manicured, pesticide-soaked lawn and let native plants and flowers flourish organically to attract and sustain beneficial pollinators such as honey bees. (Considering that the uptick in global warming also heralds crop-damaging storms and droughts, food production needs all the help it can get.) Bee-lovin’ herbals, such as lemon balm, by the tangential by, also make a mean iced tea.
From ScienceDaily: “Pollinators help one-third of the world’s food crop production.”
Pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world’s crop production, increasing the output of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide, finds a new study published today (Wednesday, Oct. 25), in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences and co-authored by a conservation biologist at the University of California, Berkeley.
The study is the first global estimate of crop production that is reliant upon animal pollination. It comes one week after a National Research Council (NRC) report detailed the troubling decline in populations of key North American pollinators, which help spread the pollen needed for fertilization of such crops as fruits, vegetables, nuts, spices and oilseed. …
What the researchers found fell in line with the dictum to which Kremen referred. Out of the 115 crops studied, 87 depend to some degree upon animal pollination, accounting for one-third of crop production globally. Of those crops, 13 are entirely reliant upon animal pollinators, 30 are greatly dependent and 27 are moderately dependent. The crops that did not rely upon animal pollination were mainly staple crops such as wheat, corn and rice.
The NRC report notes that honey bees in North America have been decimated by infestations of parasitic mites that were inadvertently introduced to the United States. In addition, honey bees are battling antibiotic-resistant pathogens and competition from Africanized honey bees.
Kremen added that honey bees, particularly ones in the wild versus those in managed hives, are negatively impacted by habitat loss and a variety of non-sustainable farming practices. These impacts also affect native species of wild bees. There are 4,000 species of native bees in North America alone.
“We’ve replaced pollination services formerly provided by diverse groups of wild bees with domesticated honey bees,” said Kremen, who recently co-authored another study showing that wild bees interacting with honey bees can lead to a five-fold increase in pollination efficiency. “The problem is, if we don’t protect the wild pollinators, we don’t have a backup plan.”
Kremen suggested an approach to a more sustainable form of agriculture, one that de-emphasizes the use of synthetic fertilizers and builds in more of a reliance on natural ecosystems.Some changes may involve mere tweaks to current practices, such as allowing weeds and native plants to grow and prosper along the border of the primary crop, she said. Such non-crop plants, which are currently killed off by herbicides, can sustain a variety of wild bee species when the primary crops are not in bloom.
(Emphases are mine.)
Related article:
1. Lawn & Order
Further resources:
1. Create a Bee Garden
2. Plants for Bumblebees
3. Urban Bee Gardens
First study of global pollinator value at Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog said,
April 3, 2007 at 1:35 pm
[...] Back in October 2006 the Royal Society published an online version of a comprehensive study that was the first attempt to put a global value on pollinators. It attracted some attention back then, at The Worsted Witch, who got it from Science Daily. We missed it at the time1, but as the paper version has just been published, that’s enough reason to revisit it2. [...]
The Worsted Witch » Bee Mine said,
June 29, 2007 at 10:10 am
[...] No doubt you’ve heard about the mysterious ailment that has been wiping out up to 80 percent of beekeeping colonies across North America and Europe. Known as “Colony Collapse Disorder,” the bee losses have beekeepers and conservationists alike wringing their hands in panic. We should be doing the same, considering that a study last year concluded that pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world’s crop production, increasing the output of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide. [...]