Publisher : Springer-Verlag - International Journal of Environmental Science & Technology
Place of publication :
Publication year : 2009
Thematic : Conservation
Language : English
Note
Bees are the dominant and most specialised
pollinators of the world’s quarter million angiosperms
(Buchmann and Ascher, 2005). Both generalist and
specialist bees harvest vast amounts of pollen for their
brood, moving grains from flower to flower, thus,
greatly effecting pollination (Buchmann and Nabhan,
1997). Although, it is the wind-pollinated grain and
cereal crops that keep the worlds six billion humans
from starvation, healthy human diets would lack the
tasty and nutritious fruits, seeds, vegetables and some
nuts if it were not for bee pollination (Buchmann and
Nabhan, 1997). Fruits and seeds also provide many by
products (fibres, oils, beverages, botanicals and
medicines) that humans need, while also feeding many
of the world’s mammals, birds and some reptiles.
Pollination by bees is obvious (Free, 1964), but
ecologists, economists and others often forget the
important ecological role played by bees. Within the
United Kingdom (UK) recent estimates suggest that
for both horticultural and agricultural crops grown
commercially that benefit from bee pollination are in
the region of £200 million per annum (Carreck and
Williams, 1998; Temple et al., 2001; Wilkins et al., 2007).
Many important UK horticultural crops, such as apples,
may cease to be economically viable if it were not for
honey bee pollination (Cuthbertson and Brown, 2006a).
The overall value of bees, in general, to wild plant
pollination is without doubt substantial, but impossible
to evaluate in economic terms because the pollination
requirements of most of the nearly 1800 species of wild
plant in the British Isles are unknown. The millennium
ecosystem assessment project estimates the global
annual monetary value of pollination to be in the order
of many hundreds of billions of dollars (MEA. 2005).
Natural and anthropogenic threats to bees are not
unique, as these include familiar causes of biodiversity
losses in other animals and plants. Fragmentation of
landscapes into habitat islands, conversion of
wildlands for human uses (agriculture, housing,
roadways, mining, etc.) impact bee populations by
eliminating nesting sites and decreasing floral
resources and nesting materials. Since most of the
worlds bees are ground nesting, urbanization covers
over prime bee habitat. Some species can survive, even
prosper in human-altered landscapes, but housing
developments eliminate many bee species due to loss
of their nest sites and floral hosts. The production of
roadways pose hidden threats as killing lanes, probably
killing many bees and other pollinators annually.
However, run-off from roadsides, often rich in nitrates,
can result in profuse bloom of many flowers visited by
bees.
Go to source
Keywords : biodiversity
Encoded by : Pauline Carmel Joy Eje
