Pollinator Decline - Observation

Observation

As plantings have grown larger, the need for concentrated pollinators at bloom time has grown. At the same time populations of many pollinators have been declining, and this decline has become a major environmental issue today. Pollination management seeks to protect, enhance, and augment agricultural pollination.

For example, feral honey bee populations in the US have dropped about 90% in the past 50 years, except for the Southwest where they have been replaced by Africanized bees. At the same time managed honey bee colonies have dropped by about two thirds.

In North America, during the winter and spring of 2006 – 2007, was a considerable decline in commercially managed honeybee colonies, with losses of about one third of honeybees population. This event is named colony collapse disorder, and has appeared in 35 states of USA affecting honeybees, reporting losses in honeybees colonies as high as 80 to 100 percent for some beekeepers.

Monoculture needs very high populations of bees at bloom, but can make the area quite barren, or even toxic when the bloom is done.

The study of pollinator decline is also interesting to some scientists, as bees have the potential to become a keystone indicator species of environmental degradation. Any changes in their abundance and diversity will influence the abundance and diversity of the prevailing plant species. This is a mutual dependency as bees rely on a steady nectar source and pollen source throughout the year to build up their hive.