Hello everyone! I apologize for not posting last week. It was the first full week of classes, and I wanted to get into the groove of things before settling down to write a post. Posts may come out every 10-14 days for the next while, mainly because things are still extremely busy and will only get busier. Co-op jobs were just posted online yesterday, so on top of my coursework/my current job/life I am now applying to as many jobs as I can. It’s a very time-consuming process, but I am so excited because there are some amazing jobs that I have applied to. Applications close next week and interviews start the week after; it’s a very stressful time, but when you think about it, it goes by quickly. I’ll keep you all updated as to how it goes!
Let’s get on to today’s post:
Bees: Without them, life cannot exist.
This is not an understatement in the slightest. The bumblebee is one of the most important pollinators in the world, and its dwindling population size could lead to catastrophe.
Bees are essential to Canadian crops and vegetation. Our country is home to over 700 native bee species, while there are over 20,000 species of bees around the world. It’s very difficult to count how many individual bees there are (if not impossible) because they are constantly moving around. However, the Canadian Association of Professional Apriculturalists (CAPA) conduct an annual study to determine the percent of Canadian bee populations that we lose every year; from 2017 to 2018, Canada lost 32.6 percent of its bee colonies, the highest loss they have reported since 2009. This has increased from the previous year, when they lost 25.1 percent of its colonies. Provincial losses ranged from 18.4 to 45.7 percent; Ontario’s loss between 2017 and 2018 was 45.7 percent. In other words, our bees are disappearing at accelerating rates.
Not surprisingly, bees are the most common pollinator in Canada. A pollinator is an organism that picks up the pollen from one plant, such as a flower, and carries it to deposit on another plant. You may not have known that plants like flowers have a sex; some are single-sex, while others are bisexual. The pollen-covered stamen of a flower is the male segment, while the pistil (which contains the flowers’ “eggs”) is the female segment. Pollinators like bees pick up the pollen from the male segment of one flower and drop it off at the female segment of another flower. This initiates fertilization, and the fertilized flower will begin to grow a seed, which will be released upon maturation and allow the flower species to live on.
Pollinators like bees help maintain the growth of at least 30 percent of our world’s crops, and 90 percent of our wildlife. Without these pollinators, the plants reliant on them for fertilization cannot reproduce and will thus die out. If the pollinators experience local extinction in one area, the surrounding plants that rely on those pollinators will die out. If the pollinator experiences a larger-scale extinction, even a global extinction, every species that relies on that pollinator will die out if its mechanism for reproduction disappears.
Disappearing bee populations doesn’t just affect plants. Think about the animals, insects and even humans that eatthose plants. If those plants disappear, a primary food source in the food chain has been taken away. The species who consume those plants will then die out unless they can adapt to other food sources. The other organisms who eat those organisms that eat the plants will also die out if their food source goes extinct. It’s a domino effect: when you remove any part of an ecosystem, big or small, the effects will be reverberated throughout the environment.
Bumblebees are considered a keystone species, which is a species that is fundamental to its ecosystem; without it, the ecosystem would change dramatically—usually not for the better. Without bees, many of our plant species would die out, and as a result the animals, insects and quite possibly humans that rely on the plants that they pollinate.
Bees pollinate so much more than just the pretty flowers you see in gardens. Here are just a few examples of what bees explicitly pollinate, and would cease to exist if bees went extinct:
- Almonds
- Beans
- Blueberries
- Buckwheat
- Cauliflower
- Cabbage
- Cherries
- Coconut
- Coffee
- Cotton
- Cranberries
- Cucumber
- Eggplant
- Flax
- Grapes
- Melon
- Mustard
- Peaches
- Potatoes
- Safflower
- Strawberries
- Tomatoes
- Tea plants
- Vanilla
- Watermelon
There are so many more examples, but these are a few of the most popular plant species that I thought I would share. From these examples, it’s easy to see how the dwindling bee population will impact the variety of food available to us in the future. Only a few crops don’t rely on bees in some way: corn, wheat, rice, soybeans and sorghum, the largest food staples around the world, are wind and self-pollinating, while bananas are fertilized by propagation (planting cuttings). Nonetheless, we can’t just live on these food items. You need a variety of vitamins and nutrients to survive, but our ability to access these nutrients will be compromised if we cannot protect our bee populations. In addition, other organisms that have adapted to eating specific foods will not be able to adapt quickly enough to survive, if their original food source diminishes. For instance, some animals or insects may lack the enzymes in their digestive system to break down the tough cell walls of some plants. Elderberries, one of the few berries with other pollinators, are poisonous to some animals if eaten when they aren’t fully ripe. Long story short, we need to preserve our bee population.
You might be wondering, why are bees disappearing? It began around 2006 when beekeepers noticed their colonies were shirnking; bees started abandoning their hives in what is called Colony Collapse Disorder, leading to the death of the entire hive. This, however, is not the main cause of the falling bee population that we see today.
One of the most common reasons for disappearing bees is the varroa mite, an invasive species from Asia that began crossing borders in the 1960s. First invading Eastern Europe during this time, they eventually spread to the States in 1987 and then to Canada in 1989. Australia was, for a long time, one of the few places in the world untouched by this mite; this past June, however, the mite was detected in a bee colony that was on a ship docking at the Port of Melbourne, coming in from the United States. The mite has not spread in the country as of yet, but this example shows how easily parasites can spread and wreak havoc on our keystone species.
The mite latches onto its prey (the bee) and feeds on its adipose tissue, or fat deposits, passing on viruses that kill the bees as they feed.
Another reason for the falling bee population is modernized agricultural practices. The use of insecticides and GM crops that are engineered to release their own pest-resistant chemicals are killing more than the pests that they are meant to ward off.
One of the insecticides believed to be poisoning bees are called neonicotinoids, one of the most commonly used insecticides in the world. Introduced in the 1990s, neonicotinoids are now used in more than 120 countries and over 140 different crop uses. In Ontario, this insecticide is used on nearly 100 percent of corn seed and 60 percent of soybean seed. For Canadian canola growers, neonicotinoids are one of the only pesticides used to grow these crops in the abundance needed to keep up with crop demands. In short, that’s a lot of bee poison.
The insecticide molecules bind to all types of plant species, and have shown to be highly toxic to bees. Neonicotinoids work by acting as agonists to nicotinic receptors in the insect’s nervous system; an agonist mimics acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that send signals through the insects nervous system to allow brain and muscle function. Acetylcholine binding to its receptor is an essential mechanism for survival. The insecticide binds to the sites meant for these neurotransmitters, preventing a signal from transmitting. Without the signal, the nervous system shuts down and the insect dies.
There are several other factors that may be causing bee populations to falter. Such factors that may be impacting bee populations include habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change and an overall decreased interest in beekeeping by humans.
On a good note, there has been an international transdisciplinary effort to bring back the bees. In 2013, the European Union put a restriction on several types of neonicotinoids used on wheat, maize, barley, oats and rape seed crops; this now may become a ban on all neonicotinoids. Ontario also introduced a policy in 2015 to reduce neonicotinoid use, requiring industries to reduce the land covered with this insecticide 80 percent by 2017. A country-wide ban on two types of neonicotinoids may also be implemented in the next few years—the final decision will be made at the end of 2019.
There have been many community-based initiatives to educate and involve the public in saving the bee population, as well. The Bring Back the Bees campaign was introduced in 2014 when Honey Nut Cheerios and Burt’s Bees joined forces to publicize concerns over disappearing bee populations. As part of the campaign, Cheerio’s infamous mascot Buzz the Bee disappeared from their cereal boxes. TV commercials, radio ads and poster boards were published everywhere. They campaign really vies for public participation as a solution to the disappearing population. You can go onto thecampaign’s website and have wildflower seeds delivered to your home for free, which can be planted to support bee pollination and growth. In addition, a special edition lip balm was made by Burt’s Bees, and for every lip balm sold, the company would plant 5,000 seeds.
The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) of the United Nations has labelled bees as “priceless.” They created World Bee Day, which was first celebrated on May 20 2018 and will continue to be celebrated annually to build awareness of the importance of bees around the world. Fun fact: they chose this day in particular because it marks the “birth” (actually his baptism, because his exact birth date is unknown) of Anton Jašna in 1734. He is considered one of history’s greatest beekeepers, sharing his knowledge of bees through lectures and published books.
The UN is very involved in bee preservation because it closely relates to one of their 17 Sustainable Development Goals: Zero Hunger. Since so many of the planet’s crops and the diversity of our food system depend on bees as pollinators, this keystone species plays a critical role in helping to achieve a sustainable global food system.
There are many NGOs around the world that aim to inform, educate and inspire action to protect our suffering bee populations. A few examples include the Planet Bee Foundation, who work with students in California to provide many different education programs that are fun and engaging for kids; Honeybee Conservancy, which have conservatories and education programs all across the States; Bee City Canada, which encourages Canadian cities, schools and businesses to become “Bee Friendly” by developing programs and projects that support education and bee population management; the Save the Bees Coalition, a collaborative effort of several NGOs under the European Union; and Bees for Development,which supports sustainable development around our favourite pollinators, working with countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. There are so many other organizations out there, so I encourage you to find one near you to get involved with.
You don’t have to be a policymaker, a big corporation or an NGO to help the bees. Each and every individual’s actions can help even one bee; if everyone in the world made one small action, that would be 7.4 billion bees saved. There are many ways that you can get involved in protecting your local bees, including:
- Plant wildflowers in your garden, a flower pot on your balcony, at your school or in your workplace.
- Don’t use any pesticides/synthetic fertilizers on your plants; purchase non-GMO, organic products, or locally-grown produce that does not use pesticides known to harm bees.
- Don’t weed your garden! Plants like dandelions are a food source to the bees. Instead of thinking of them as weeds, think of them as essential food sources for our important pollinators.
- Donate to a research centre that is studying bees; the University of Guelph has a few research projects surrounding bee health and conservation that you can donate to.
- Place a shallow container of wateroutside your home/on your balcony in the warmer months. Bee’s need to drink and bathe, too! Make sure to put a few stones in the dish so that the bees don’t fall into the water.
- Attend local workshops, seminars and events centred around bee education.
- Create your own awareness campaign or event at your school to promote bee education and inform your peers about this issue threatening the planet.
- Don’t squish bees when you see them—just leave them be!
Like I’ve said before, one small action can lead to a big change. One bee saved for every person that gets involved makes a huge difference. If we all take one small action to help the bees, we can restore their populations and create a sustainable food system.
I encourage you all to go research a local organization or project that is helping to protect the bee population in your area. I honestly plan on learning how to bee-keep when I’m older. You don’t have to take such drastic action, even planting wildflowers or attending a workshop make just as much of a difference. The important thing to remember is that we need to take action immediately. We are wrong in thinking that we need to wait and hold off taking action because we expect some big corporation to do it. The action needs to come from us, right now. It’s the only way we can save the bees.
I hope that you enjoy the rest of your week! Until next time!
