- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The wild bee research co-authored by 58 bee scientists and published today (June 16) in Nature Communications is drawing a lot of attention--and well it should.
Pointing out that wild bee diversity is declining worldwide at unprecedented rates, the researchers said steps must be taken to conserve them--and not just those that are the main pollinators of agricultural crops.
"This study provides important support for the role of wild bees to crop pollination through a comprehensive global summary,” said co-author and pollination ecologist Neal Williams, associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. “At the same time, we found that in any one region, much of the pollination services from wild bees to a given crop come from just a few species, thus we need to be careful about using a simplistic economic ecosystem-services argument for biodiversity conservation and maintain actions that target biodiversity as specific goal. "
The study, led by David Kleijn of Wageningen University, The Netherlands, found that of the almost 80 percent of crop pollination provided solely by wild bees, only 2 percent are by the most common species. This indicates that the benefits of conserving only economically important organisms are not the same as the benefits of conserving a broad diversity of species, the researchers said.
The paper, “Delivery of Crop Pollination Services is an Insufficient Argument for Wild Pollinator Conservation,” is online at http://www.nature.com/naturecommunications. Among the co-authors are native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, and conservation biologist Claire Kremen of UC Berkeley, a longtime associate of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Wrote the researchers in their abstract: “There is compelling evidence that more diverse ecosystems deliver greater benefits to people, and these ecosystem services have become a key argument for biodiversity conservation. However, it is unclear how much biodiversity is needed to deliver ecosystem services in a cost-effective way. Here we show that, while the contribution of wild bees to crop production is significant, service delivery is restricted to a limited subset of all known bee species. Across crops, years and biogeographical regions, crop-visiting wild bee communities are dominated by a small number of common species, and threatened species are rarely observed on crops.”
“Dominant crop pollinators,” they pointed out, “persist under agricultural expansion and many are easily enhanced by simple conservation measures, suggesting that cost-effective management strategies to promote crop pollination should target a different set of species than management strategies to promote threatened bees. Conserving the biological diversity of bees therefore requires more than just ecosystem-service-based arguments.”
The researchers analyzed data from more than 90 studies on five continents, including Europe and North America. They concluded that the higher levels of biodiversity provide greater benefits to the functioning and stability of ecosystems, with some functions also being “economically beneficial” for humans.
Kleijn and his colleagues studied 785 species, analyzing which provide the best economic returns from crop pollination. They found that wild bee communities contribute an average of more than $3,251 per hectare (2.471 acres) to the production of crops, and that they provide the same economic contributions as managed honey bee colonies. However, they also noted that the majority of crop pollination services provided by wild bees are accomplished by only a small subset of the most common species.
“Across the 90 studies, we collected a total of 73,649 individual bees of 785 species visiting crop flowers,” the authors wrote. “Although is an impressive number, it represents only 12.6 percent of the currently known number of species occurring in the states or countries where our studies took place. When we consider only bee species that contribute 5 percent or more to the relative visitation rate of any single study, the percentage drops to 3 percent of the species in the regional species pool. Yet these 2 percent of species account for almost 80 percent of all crop visits.”
These results suggest that conservation efforts targeted directly at a few species providing the majority of ecosystem services, such as crop pollination, would represent a good strategy if the goal is to improve economic returns. However, they said such a strategy is unlikely to be compatible with conserving threatened species and biological diversity “if the goal is to improve the functioning and stability of ecosystems.”
Williams worked with Kleijn and Winfree of Rutgers University New Brunswick, N.J., to conceive of some of the approaches used, particularly suggested looking at the abundance distributions of crop bees within the larger species pools of the region to understand whether the most important crop pollinators species are simply the common bees overall. Williams and Kremen also contributed to the manuscript, from the early drafts to the final versions.
As an aside, we certainly hope that this global research packs a social media wallop and leads to efforts to protect and preserve our wild bees. Unfortunately, many people never think about wild bees. It's "out of sight, out of mind," not "absence makes the heart grow fonder."
We'd all do well to take a look at the amazing macro bee images by Sam Droege, head 'of the bee inventory and monitoring program at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). His work has been featured in publications all over the world. Among the latest: National Geographic. See his USGS work posted on Flickr. And check out his book, An Up-Close Look at Pollinators Around the World, co-authored by Laurence Packer.
Absence CAN make the heart grow fonder...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
She has her olive groves, her California olive oil company that mills what's praised as the "finest of the fine" artisan olive oil, and now...drum roll...bees.
Honey bees.
Ann and her husband, Mark, own IL Fiorello located at 2625 Mankas Corner Road, Fairfield. They produce oil from their groves and mill oil for clients throughout the area, including UC Davis.
International award-winning olive oils.
The name, IL Fiorelli, Ann explains, means “little flower” in Italian. “IL” is "the" and "Fiorello" means "flower," from the tiny white flowers on the olive trees. Her grandfather, Dominic Fiorello, immigrated from Italy to the United States in the 1860s. She's a third-generation Fiorello.
Ann's background: She's a nationally recognized clinical nurse specialist in otolaryngology (that's head, nose and throat) surgery in the UC Davis Health System. She retired in 2013 from the Advanced Practice in Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgical Oncology. Highly honored for her work, she holds RN, MA and CORLN (certified otorhinolaryngology nurse) degrees.
Then she transitioned from health care to agriculture. Bees are the latest venture.
Back in March, Rick Shubert of Bee Happy Apiaries, Vacaville, and his assistant, Brittany Dye, placed some 286 nuc boxes at IL Fiorello.
They "have honored us with queens," enthused Ann in a blog. "We should be should all be wearing crowns in honor of our most royal guests."
Bee Happy Apiaries delivered 1144 queens in 286 nuc boxes, each divided into four sections to accomodate a queen and her colony. "The bee hives are all different colors for identification of who owns the bees, what size is the box, and light colors for heat reflection," Ann wrote. "Some bee keepers paint their hives with letters and pictures for fun and to help the bees identify their home, like little different landing pads. Brittany tells me these bees' ancestors are originally from Iran, named Carnolian bees. They are known to be gentle and produce tasty honey. These bees are here for queen propagation, not honey. But lots of honey is coming in the next stage."
Ann calls it "just an amazing opportunity to see nature at work. It is so fun to watch the dance of the bees."
Plans call for bee classes "when all the buzzing settles down," Ann says. "Brittany will teach us all about bees, and Sue Langstaff, Applied Sensory Co. will buzz us through the UC Davis Honey wheel and a sweet honey taste extravaganza."
We think her grandfather would be proud.
Dominic Fiorello, known as "The Chief," had a profound respect for traditional agriculture and put his knowledge of Italian methods, Ann recalled. "Raising vegetables and fruit for the family, making wine for their table, and carefully saving seeds from year to year became part of his dreams for the future. Innately respectful of the soil that supported them and dedicated to good stewardship of the land, the Chief passed down a concern for healthy nutrition to his son, Raphael Fiorello, who also relied on traditional practices when providing for his family during the Depression. As Ann grew up, Raphael's homegrown vegetables and grapes helped the family to thrive and enjoy the great pleasures of living close to the land."
Today the Sievers have some 2000 olive trees. Daughters Elisabeth and Katherine helped plant them.
How does health care compare to being an agriculturist?
"Being in farming and having an agro tourism business is really similar to what I did in health care," Ann says. "You take care of people and you take care of trees. You guide people through the process so they learn about olive oil and they enjoy the product. The trees just don't talk back and nothing is really an emergency as occurred daily in the hospital. I am glad I am not responding to airway emergencies anymore. I use all my training in health care and sensory science to pair oils, food, wine, and agriculture. I work just as hard for guests to have a wonderful experience at Il Fiorello. I explain to guests that if I, as a farmer and producer, do not grow food then you will not eat. In this time of water shortages this topic comes up frequently."
The Sievers engage in farming "with an eye to sustainability and good stewardship of the land.” (Read more about what they do on their website.)
Today the rapidly growing IL Fiorello includes a Visitor Center and Olive Mill for tours and tastings, and offers cooking classes in its state-of-the-art kitchen in the Grove Culinary Center.
And now IL Fiorello or"little flower" keeps honey bees. Beautiful honey bees...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So writes Sal (Sally) Levinson in her newly published book, Butterfly Papercrafts, which contains 21 indoor projects for outdoor learning.
Ah, the joys of discovery! If you're looking for something educational, rewarding, timely and artsy-crafty for your kids--and your neighbors' kids--how about teaching them about butterflies?
And just in time for National Pollinator Week, June 15-21.
Sal who studied entomology at the graduate level at UC Riverside and UC Berkeley, wants to inspire youngsters to learn about our amazing world of butterflies through art and a little science. Each of the 21 papercrafts contains a lesson about butterflies.
Butterfly Papercrafts is intended for youngsters ages 5-12, but really, it's also a beginner's book for all ages and a teacher's treasure. And it's priced under $10 ($9.99).
Readers can learn about the life cycle, from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to adult; and craft a butterfly paper airplane, a caterpillar flip book and a monarch finger puppet. In addition, there's also fascinating information about nectar, pollination, monarch migration, and "puddle parties" (who wouldn't want a puddle party?). She'll tell you exactly what a puddle party is and describe the behavior.
Sal has worked with insects from the fields of central California, to the forests of Connecticut and Idaho, to the labs of Berkeley. A butterfly educator for the past two decades, she maintains her own butterfly garden and provides specimens for adult and children's classes, teacher training sessions, and garden fairs. She also writes a blog.
Sal and her brother, Bill Levinson, completed two films, In the Company of Wild Butterflies, and The Secret Lives of Monarchs.
Sal lives in Berkeley with her husband and, of course, “my insects.” Her daughter, Berkeley resident Danielle Levinson, who illustrated the book, holds a degree in design from UC Davis. Now a software engineer for Google, Danielle remembers growing up with caterpillar terrariums on the kitchen table.
And the monarch finger puppet? It's a puppet that appears to have four legs. Sal explains that all insects have six legs, but the monarch, "like all brush-footed butterflies, has two legs that are tiny."
"Once the finger puppet is complete, you can use it to mimic butterfly behavior," Sal writes. "For instance, you can take it on a long flight, pretending that it is migrating to Mexico or the coast of California for the winter. Your puppet can bask in the sun to warm up, look for a mate, nectar at flowers, and lay eggs on leaves. At night, it can roost in a protected place. What other butterfly behaviors can your puppet mimic?
And the monarch migration chapter? Readers can color trees, the monarchs, and the background. The end result: pop-up art.
"Monarchs migrate south in the fall and spend the winter in trees along the California coast and in Mexico," Sal writes. "In the spring, they fly north and reproduce." For further reading, she recommends the book, Monarchs by Kathryn Lasky and the film, On the Wings of the Monarch.
Caution: Those delving into this papercraft book will (1) become more curious about insects (2) spend a humongous quantity of time outdoors looking for them (3) plant a butterfly garden and (4) rear butterflies.
Or become a lepitopterist or artist. Or both.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Talk about a pollen-packing bumble bee.
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, displayed quite a heavy load of orange pollen recently as it foraged on hairy vetch in the Hastings Preserve, Carmel, owned and operated by the University of California, Berkeley.
Did you know that Monday, June 15 marks the start of National Pollinator Week?
It's sponsored by the Pollinator Partnership, which offers these fast facts about pollinators:
- About 75 percent of all flowering plant species need the help of animals to move their heavy pollen grains from plant to plant for fertilization.
- About 1,000 of all pollinators are vertebrates such as birds, bats, and small mammals.
- Most pollinators (about 200,000 species) are beneficial insects such as flies, beetles, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, and bees.
- In the United States, pollination produces nearly $20 billion worth of products annually
In observation of National Pollinator Week, the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology is planning an open house at its bee garden, the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., Friday, June 19. The half-acre bee garden is located on Bee Biology Road, next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, west of the central campus.
Activities will include bee observation and identification, honey tasting, sales of native bee houses to support the haven, and information about low-water plants.
You're likely to see such pollinators as honey bees, bumble bees, sweat bees, syrphid flies, and butterflies.
The open house is free and open to the public. The garden, planted in the fall of 2009 during the tenure of Lynn Kimsey, then interim chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is now managed by Christine Casey, staff, and Extension apiculturist Elina Niño, faculty.
It showcases the work of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, co-directed and co-founded by Diane Ullman and Donna Billick; and the work of students in Entomology 1, taught by Ullman and Billick. The state-of-the-art fence that circles the garden is the work of Eagle Scout Derek Tully of Boy Scout Troop 111, Davis.
The bee garden is open daily from dawn to dusk.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Who's that knocking on our front door?
Actually, we didn't hear it knock. It appeared out of nowhere and climbed up to our doorbell.
We gingerly placed the jumping spider, Phidippus audax, in a vial to transport it to our backyard bee garden.
Phidippus audax, aka P.A., was not all that happy in that vial. As soon as we opened the lid, out he scrambled.
Several mornings later, we saw P.A. sleeping on a lavender stem next to four male bumble bees (Bombus californicus).
This particular jumping spider is commonly called the "daring jumping spider" or the "bold jumping spider." It can reportedly jump 10 to 50 times its own body length. Its iridescent metallic green chelicerae is a sight to see.
"Like other jumping spiders, due to their large, forward-facing eyes, they have very good stereoscopic vision," says Wikipedia. "This aids them when stalking prey, and allows some visual communication with others of their species, such as courting 'dances.'"
"This spider is regularly found in grasslands and fields, but can also be recurrently seen on exterior walls, fences and in gardens," Wikipedia points out. "Most jumping spiders tend to prefer flat, vertical surfaces which allow the spiders to spot and hunt down wandering insects easily.
Will P.A. stalk our sleeping bumble bees? Maybe we need to do a bed count every morning...
