A new study points to the disappearance of wild bees in North America and Europe following climate change. Will the honey bees in Israel not be with us in the future?
Yonatan Kishka, Angle - Science and Environment News Agency
On Rosh Hashanah, like every year, we dipped an apple segment in honey. At this moment only when will few of us think that we should be grateful to the bees. The little, buzzing, flying and prickly animals are responsible not only for the honey we eat, but for the pollination that causes the fruit we eat to fertilize. Both wild plants and agricultural crops consumed by humans depend on bee pollination, some claim that about a third of our food depends on bees. Is the bee population in the world in danger in recent years? This is a question that concerns many scientists and farmers.
The temperature on the surface of the earth has increased on average by up to four degrees Celsius in the last hundred years, according to various studies. Many species of animals in the world react dramatically to climate change and global warming. The response is reflected in an increasing trend of population distribution towards the poles, towards higher and colder latitudes. Those places that were too cold in the past are now favorable for immigration and settlement.
Bees are also affected by these climate changes. A study that compiled 110 years of observations of wild bees, responsible for pollination, of the Bombus type in North America and Europe (67 different species in the study) points to an unusual phenomenon in which the wild bees, overwhelmingly, fail to move their colonies north and in fact their total population may be reduced. Without these wild bees, many plants, which have developed a dependence on bees, would not be able to reproduce and produce fruit and food. According to the research findings, compared to 1974, the southern border of the bumble bee's distribution was sometimes pushed about 300 kilometers to the north and the northern latitude of their distribution remained the same (the observations refer to the northern hemisphere). Due to the warming, wild bees also move to higher and colder areas and in places below 300 meters above sea level there is less interaction between them and plants. The researchers claim that climate change is the main cause of this phenomenon, even more than other stressors, such as the use of sprays and the cultivation of open spaces by man. Apparently the phenomenon has been observed both in Europe and in Canada, which is rich in open and almost virgin areas, where pollution and land cultivation are less evident. This phenomenon directly affects the pollination of plants and the problem of reproduction because many plants are adapted to pollination by wild bees. Researchers tend to state that wild bees have a lower resistance to global warming compared to other animals for evolutionary reasons. They rely on the fact that the historical origin of the wild bees is in a colder climate than many other species that have not lost their habitats.
The reasons that prevent bees from moving north have not yet been clarified since the lower temperatures in the north should not disturb them. Researchers think that the lack of light hours in winter and the lack of food are the factors that may leave the bees in more southern areas. Another explanation refers to the fact that wild bees live and move in relatively small groups, which slows down the rate of reproduction and migration to the north.
The Israeli bees
The question arises, can the phenomenon of wild bees be attributed to honey bees and what is happening in Israel? "Extinction is too dramatic a word to describe the situation today and in the near future, but it can be said that the wild bees that produce honey are extinct, and all the bees that produce honey today are of the domesticated variety," says Prof. Sharon Shapir, director of the entomology department at the Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot (Hebrew University), who studies bees for many years. "The domesticated honey bees are not in danger of extinction, but of course they have problems. However, there is a fear in nature of the loss of diversity in terms of species and subspecies. Due to ecological problems and the commercialization of certain species, other species may disappear. A small biological diversity, which means a loss of physiological properties and a limitation on the ability of bees to adapt to changes and face hazards such as diseases and environmental and environmental disturbances. The loss of biological diversity can have indirect implications for the human race," adds Shapir, "but in the first stage the damage is to nature, the wild plants and the wild animals that feed on the plants. Throughout history it is important to know that most wild bees do not produce honey but are key players in ecosystems as pollinators of many plants. There is a difference between nature and agriculture because 99 percent of the pollination in agriculture is done by honey bees. A single percentage is attributed to bumble bees. Despite this, even if today the domesticated honey bees are not in danger of extinction, they have quite a few problems and therefore we follow them, identify problems and think of solutions".
"In our research and observations, we came to understand that apart from the "classic" problems of climate change, chemical substances and diseases, there is another factor that could be a big problem - nutrition. Poor nutrition may affect, for example, the immune system and the behavior of a colony. There is a noticeable difference in the amount of honey produced from beehives with good conditions and beehives with disturbances", says Shapir. The amount of food available for bees may decrease if there are climate problems and this affects the agricultural harvest. "In one of the studies we examined the behavior of bee colonies in fields of fruit trees such as apples, pears and plums in the north of the country. These fruit trees depend on the activity of the bees. The bee consumes the nectar of the flower (male) and with its hairy body carries pollen to another flower (female) and fertilizes the plant. The honey bees are the best pollinators for these trees. In Israel it is customary to use the order of 25 bee colonies to pollinate 100 dunams. At low temperatures in the north, the bee is less active, but there is a bigger problem: after a few days of pollination in a farmer's field, a colony of honey bees recognizes the potential in pollination of nearby "competing" wild trees. There the reward of the nectar is greater and the bees abandon the agricultural fields and the harvest is not obtained as expected. Doubling the amount of bees in the field did not double the yield. In order to get a bigger harvest we used the method of timing the colonies to the fields in waves. Each time a colony of "naïve" bees was sent, which were first exposed to the field and its surroundings, and after they were abandoned in favor of the abundant nectar of the competing plants, we sent a new colony of naive bees to the field. This is how they reached a greater yield of fruits." The research shows that when there is a limited resource, such as the amount of bees and nectar, researchers and farmers must find a creative way to utilize it with maximum efficiency.
The word of the bees
"The phenomenon of global warming and desertification do not miss the Negev," says Ido Shahar, a beekeeper from Moshav Kalahim in the northern Negev. "When there is less precipitation, the plants have less nectar and the amount of honey produced decreases. In the Negev there are no shortage of rainy seasons. In response to this, there are national initiatives such as the beautiful KKL-Junk initiative of planting cyphers, meaning there is a preference for planting cryptic plants, with a lot of nectar, to provide the bees with raw material for the benefit of honey. The hot summer also increases the activity of a virus-carrying parasite (called Varroa) which destroys about a quarter of our hives. His attempted pest control using a chemical agent was temporarily successful, but he has already developed resistance."
"As far as we know, there is currently no reduction in honey bee populations in Israel," says Pavel Fauktistov, a beekeeper at the Yad Mordechai apiary. "In this branch, similar to other branches of agriculture, there are constantly challenges and problems such as diseases of biological origin and vulnerability from chemical substances. It is not certain that global warming affects honey bees more than other factors. In order to get more heat-resistant bees in the country that will produce more honey, we perform selection by choosing excellent hives and with the help of artificial insemination, we get excellent offspring. By the way, we once raised the local bee of the Syrian variety until we brought a bee of the Italian variety for reasons of efficiency. This way we continue to get a high yield of high quality honey".
The human race has a high priority interest in preserving the bee, its issue and its various species. The creative solutions in research and agriculture should ensure many more years of fruit and honey crops. On the other hand, on a broader scale, the future of wild bees and pollination-dependent species is uncertain and there is less room for optimism. Effects of climate change, damage from parasites and diseases, together with problems of chemical sprays from nearby fields, confront every bee and beekeeper with many challenges on a daily basis. It should be remembered that the honey industry in Israel is small on a global scale and the Israelis are trying to learn from countries "rich" in bees, such as the USA, how to face the many challenges. In the coming years leading up to Rosh Hashanah, we will continue to enjoy a large selection of honey from various sources at attractive prices, as well as many fruits, such as apples, watermelons and pears, which are placed on the stands thanks to the work of bees. Let's hope that the future generations of bees will also produce plenty of fruit for the benefit of our children and grandchildren.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
Has the mystery of the disappearance of the bees been solved?
Turkish bees were found in beehives from biblical times
Are bees also addicted to nicotine and caffeine?
4 תגובות
Dew
Bees feed on nectar, so it's a shame that we eat plants before they bloom, because that's the food of the bees...
It's a shame that an agenda comes without knowledge...
Dew
It's a shame that you introduce nonsense and inaccuracy in an attempt to spread your moral positions.
Humans are "destined" (a meaningless word in this context) to consume honey to the same extent that humans are "destined" to wear clothes, "destined" to move stones in order to create structures or are designed to flow electrons through silicon crystals in order to write comments on scientific websites about the immorality of consuming honey.
Babies can consume honey and enjoy it. Its consumption is not necessarily fatal. The reason that babies should not consume honey is that spores of certain types of bacteria can survive in honey. Babies in their first year of life do not have a sufficiently developed immune system to deal with these bacteria if they come into contact with them.
Therefore, it is an unnecessary risk to give babies uncooked honey (or food in general, in most cases breastfeeding should be enough).
Bees that receive sugar substitutes also continue to eat honey and feed their maggots with honey.
Artificial beehives are built so that they have several levels. One level for the queen, maggots and honey and additional levels only for honey.
Honey for human consumption is consumed from the upper levels.
Populations of bees decrease during the winter periods in the wild due to a shortage of nectar. Since there is a demand for honey throughout the year, the population is kept artificially high and during the winter bees receive sugar syrup (or corn syrup in the US) instead of nectar. This actually means that a lot of the honey we consume comes from sugar/corn syrup.
Regarding the morality of raising bees in order to extract honey from them, this is a subject for another philosophical discussion.
It's a shame that you didn't cover the real problem of the bees, which is that we eat their honey (yes, yes, what you heard). The bees produce honey to be used for themselves and their maggots as food, as most of us know honey has wonderful antiseptic abilities that allow it to be stored for 3000 years without it spoiling, what we do is take the honey from the bees to consume it ourselves (even though we are not meant to to consume honey and for babies consumption of honey is fatal and will end in death without urgent medical treatment) and replace the honey with corn syrup rich in fructose for the most part or substitutes that are based on sugar and this is what exposes them to bacteria and viruses. The time has come for us to eat the variety of foods we are meant to eat and leave the only food suitable for bees to eat, in return they pollinate all our agricultural produce and provide us with a huge nutritional variety.
In my opinion, the future will be that instead of beehives in the orchard, there will be a docking and charging station for small and hairy drones with color sensors for flowers and a random algorithm for pollination. Pity the bees. But if global warming cannot be stopped, practical solutions must be thought of.