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To say that interest in pollinators has been growing of late borders on understatement 2
The five Ws would be helpful here 3
Who? Insects in at least six orders are involved in pollination Thysanoptera Hymenoptera Diptera Lepidoptera Coleoptera (...about 150,000-200,000 species ) Hemiptera http://www.pollinator.com/ www.umsl.edu/~biosrenn/sarcandra%20poll.%202001.pdf 4 4
Bird pollination Mammal pollination Even lizard pollination (...about 1,500 species of vertebrates in total ) 5 5
What? What? Pistil Fertilization pollen grain Pollination: The transfer of pollen from the male part of flowers (anthers) to the female part (stigma). Pollen grain contains the male gamete (plant sperm) Ovule houses the female gamete (plant egg) 6
Insects are particularly important pollinators because they facilitate cross-pollination, which increases plant genetic diversity http://joyfusions.com/what-is-pollination-and-why-honey-bees-are-important-pollinators/ 7
When? Report Briefing October 2006 Managed Pollinators Status Long-term population trends for honey bee in the United States are demonstrably downward. Similar data are not available for other pollinators. U.S. honey bee colonies, 1945-2005. Data compiled from USDA-NASS 8
That same month, the first reports of what would eventually be called Colony Collapse Disorder appeared. Colony losses have subsequently climbed, ranging from 22% to 35% annually ever since http://www.fix.com/blog/bring-back-the-bees/ 9
Cameron et al. 2011 3 Jan 2011 Evidence also has accumulated of population declines in other pollinators Bumble bee decline was associated with a microsporidian pathogen and reduced genetic diversity 10
Bumble bee decline Summary of Bombus individuals surveyed from 382 collection locations for eight target species, including historical range maps (grayscale shading) with current sightings (pie charts) Sizes of the pie charts indicate total number of individuals surveyed at each location; size of the orange segment indicates the fraction of the respective target species collected at that site 11
Overwintering populations of monarch butterflies in Mexico are in steep decline 12
as are overwintering populations in California http://www.visitsanluisobispocounty.com/blog/114/the-beautiful-monarch-butterflies-are-here 13
Where? Pollinator decline appears to be a global phenomenon Honey bee numbers are down across Europe http://seekingalpha.com/article/590411-colony-collapse-disorder-as-part-of-an-acquisition-strategy 14
In Britain, both wild bees and flower flies (syrphids) have been declining (and those are among very few groups of insects people pay attention to ) 15
Why? More than 67 percent of flowering plants ( 240,000 sp.) require a pollinator insect to move pollen. 16 Photo: Edward S. Ross
The economic impact of insect pollination worldwide is estimated at 170 billion dollars ( 150 billion, Gallai et al. 2009) and disproportionately affects fruits, vegetables, edible oil crops, stimulant crops, and nuts. 17
Pollination a 20+ billion dollar service to US agriculture (honey bees alone provide $15 billion) Direct result: apple, almond, avocado, blueberry, cantaloupe, cherries, cranberries, cucumber, citrus, plums, peaches, pumpkin, strawberries Indirect result: dairy products (from alfalfa and clover hay), seeds (carrots, celery, onion), higher yields (peanuts, soybeans, olives, grapes) 18
Pumpkins, melons, horseradish, peaches, popcorn and grapes for wine production are just some of the lesser-known crops grown on 100,000 acres of Illinois farmland each year. In 2010, specialty crops generated more than $390 million in sales. http://farmflavor.com/us-ag/illinois/illinois-food/illinois-specialty-crops/ 19
(e.g., peaches, 48%, watermelon 70%) (e.g., pumpkin, 90%) http://expectattitude.com/news/ 20
There s no way to place an economic value on pollination of native plants by native insects 21
How to help? Almost 8 years after CCD first made headlines, what do we know? Well, we know that pollinator health is complicated Farmers, beekeepers, and the general public all have to work together 22
Farmers, beekeepers, and the general public can ALL cut down on pesticide use 23
And everyone should cut down on pesticides that serve no purpose 24
Seed treatments provide negligible overall benefits to soybean production in most situations 25
Farmers, beekeepers, and the general public can ALL diversify the landscape to provide pollinator habitat 26
and to improve pollinator nutrition Good nutrition helps bees and other pollinators cope better with other stressors Pollen-fed honey bees deal with organophosphate pesticides better than honey bees not receiving pollen 27
And pollen diversity is particularly critical when pathogens are present (survival is maximized on mixed pollen) 28 28
Natural components of honey, pollen and propolis upregulate genes that encode proteins that detoxify pesticides (such as cytochrome P450s) AND that strengthen immunity 29
Beekeeping practices that replace honey with sucrose or highfructose corn syrup may thus compromise detoxification and immunity. Why do beekeepers feed their bees sucrose or fructose syrup? Guts of honey bees consuming sugar are flaccid and reduced in size in comparison with guts of bees consuming honey 30 30 30
Back in 2009, habitat loss was linked to CCD: The greater the amount of open land, the greater the honey yield; the lower the ratio of open to developed land, the higher the proportion of colony loss. Bees are having trouble finding enough highquality food 31 31
And with drought s making losses of diversit y more acute, bees have resorted to weirder foods 32
Here in Champaign County http://www.nass.usda.gov/statistics_by_state/illinois/publications/county_estimates/2013/il_corn_production_by_county.pdf 33
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The Conservation Reserve Program encourages farmers to convert highly erodible cropland or other environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative cover, such as cultivated or native bunchgrasses and grasslands, wildlife and pollinators food and shelter plantings, windbreak and shade trees, filter and buffer strips, grassed waterways, and riparian buffers (Wiki) In 2013, the total acreage enrolled, 25.3 million acres, was the lowest total since 1988 when the program had just started http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/crp-2013-signup-results/ 35
In Illinois in particular, losses of CRP land are high 36
In the In the Corn Belt, much of the increase in corn acreage came at the expense of soybeans, a nectar and pollen source for bees http://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2011-september/data-feature-where-did-the-corn-come-from.aspx#.vle6isfzcsa 37
Suburban lawns, as currently configured, aren t ideal for pollinators either Plant flowers with nectar and pollen or tolerate more weeds (after all, they re just wildflowers ) 38
You can also help pollinators by helping scientists learn about them 39
Citizen-scientists upload digital images of honey bees and bumble bees and identify them based on a user-friendly color-based keys Date and locality information are also entered and cross-referenced with the Illinois Natural History Survey historical collections 40
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--Support your local beekeeper; buy local honey! 42
And learn all you can about pollinators and then tell your friends! 43
Thank you! Thank you! 44