Why bees are finally getting a break By Isabelle Gerretsen, 5/6/20, BBC
Lockdowns have put a number of insect-harming practices on hold, creating a friendlier world for wild bees - & conservationists hope some of these cha nges could be here to stay.
While people have been confined to their homes this spring, wildlife has fa ced less human disturbance, traffic & polluting fumes. In Israel, wild boar are venturing further into the city of Haifa than before, while dolphins a re increasingly braving the Bosphorus, the Turkish narrows that normally se rves as a busy shipping route.
One animal that could see a much-needed revival is the wild bee, scientists say. Bee populations are rapidly declining around the world due to habitat loss, pollution & the use of pesticides, among other factors.
?These creatures are vital to what we eat & what our countryside lo oks like,? says Gill Perkins, chief exec of the Bumblebee Conservat ion Trust. ?They provide a whole ecosystem service.?
A world without bees would look very different and change our lives enormou sly. Bees are the world?s most important pollinators, fertilising a third of the food we eat & 80% of flowering plants. Bees & other pollinati ng insects have a global economic value of around £120bn ($150bn) & co ntribute around £690m ($850m) to the UK economy every year, according to a study by the Univ of Reading.
One of the biggest enviro impacts of the global shutdown has been the signi ficant reduction in air pollution.
Less fumes from cars on the road makes it easier for bees to forage, as air pollution substantially reduces the strength & longevity of floral scents, according to a 2016 study. Pollutants break down scent molecules emitted b y plants, making it harder for bees to detect food. This means they often e nd up flying further to find food & bring it back to their nests. Ozone con centrations of 60 parts/billion, which the US EPA classes as ?low ?, was enough to cause chemical changes that confused bees & preven ted them from foraging efficiently, the study found.
?In a world with less air pollution, bees can make shorter & more p rofitable ?shopping trips?, & this may help them rear more young,? says Mark Brown, prof of evolutionary ecology at Royal Holl oway, Univ of London.
Fewer cars on the roads means other benefits for bees too. The number of be e deaths is likely to fall as car journeys decrease during lockdown, Brown notes. A 2015 study by Canadian researchers estimated that 24 billion bees & wasps are killed by vehicles on roads across North America every year.
And as UK councils are tightening their purse strings due to coronavirus, m any have stopped maintaining road verges which have turned into lush habita ts as a result. ?This unexpected profusion of flowers may well be a nother benefit for bees, with the unexpected food they provide boosting bee populations,? Brown says.
Ecologists in the UK have been calling on councils to allow verges to run w ild for years, running campaigns such as ?Don?t mow, let it grow.?
Brown suggests that councils may now be discovering both the financial & en viro benefits of not cutting back verges during lockdown, & could continue the practice once restrictions are lifted.
But a break for wild bees doesn?t mean it?s a good time for honey. Commercial beekeepers & farmers who rely on them to pollinate their crops are struggling because of travel restrictions. =========== Commercial beekeepers in Canada & many Euro countries depend heavily on sea sonal workers & on importing queen bees from around the world to replenish their colonies, according to Jeff Pettis, president of Apimondia, the int'l federation of beekeepers. The UK, for example, gets many of its queen hone y bees from Italy. Usually the bees are transported by plane, but since fli ghts have been grounded they are being driven across the continent, says Pe ttis. ?If beekeepers can?t find the labour to produce honey , the colonies will get congested,? he says. That means the bees sp lit & swarm earlier to form new colonies, making management difficult for t he beekeepers.
This could have serious knock-on effects for arable farmers, as commercial travelling hives are often relied upon for crop pollination. In the US, bee s pollinate an estimated $15bn (£12.3bn) of crops every year, includin g almonds, courgettes & melons, according to the US Dept of Agriculture.
Take the Californian almond; around two million bee colonies are needed for Calif?s almond production alone. Almond trees flower in Feb & Marc h, & by April the visiting commercial hives have usually been moved to othe r parts of the country to pollinate different crops. This relocation has ta ken longer this year as some drivers have been told to self-quarantine for
14 days when crossing state borders. ?It has been a little dicey, ? says Pettis.While things could temporarily be looking up for the wild bee, travel restr ictions have hampered conservationists? efforts to gather data on h ow they are doing. Typically, large insect surveys are carried out by scien tists every spring. But the UK?s Bumblebee Conservation Trust has s uspended its BeeWalks, monthly surveys by volunteers to count the number of bumblebees across the country.
?It is not an essential journey so we have asked people to not do t hose walks. We have not been able to do the data collection,? says Perkins.
Instead, ecologists & conservation groups have called on the wider public t o help them gather scientific data during this time. ?Citizen scien ce? is vital while official surveys are suspended, according to eco logist Claire Carvell who runs the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme. Anyone can participate in the scheme by completing what is known as a Flower-Insec t Timed Count (FIT Count). This involves monitoring a small patch of flower s in your garden for 10 minutes, counting the number of insects you see & f illing in an online form.
?The survey can be done by anyone who has a patch of flowers & a fe w minutes to spare,? says Carvell, adding that the citizen science campaign is ?really creating a buzz? this year. In April, 2
50 FIT Counts were submitted online ? more than double the number r eceived at the same time last year. ?People are enjoying the opport unity to do something a bit more structured with their time,? Carve ll says, adding that she has received data from all across the UK, covering a much wider area than scientists usually reach.So as well as giving wild bees themselves a temporary respite, bee speciali sts are hopeful that increased awareness & engagement with bees could be a boon for conservation. But, like with all the other enviro changes we? ?re seeing now, any long-term benefits for bees would depend on these cha nges being carried forward as lockdowns lift. For some, like leaving verges wild, the change may not be so hard to maintain. For others, like keeping traffic volumes low, the changes would need to be more systemic.
One change that Perkins anticipates carrying forward, though, is people? ??s reconnection with nature. ?They are beginning to realise ho w their mental health & wellbeing is supported by nature ? particul arly by bumblebees, which are so iconic & beautiful & buzzy,? she s ays. ?I hope that remains after lockdown.?