Monday, June 17, 2013

For Some Bumblebees, Future Not So Sweet

Bumblebee2In early summer, my roses are buzzing with bees. European honeybees from my hives are tripping over the tiny metallic native bees while burly black and yellow bumblebees, the sumo wrestlers in this ring, shoulder through the stamens.

It would appear all is right with bees. But it’s not. Everyone knows honeybees are in trouble, but bumblebees are also in worldwide decline. In North America, several species are extinct, or perilously close to it.

“You can find lots of bumblebees out there, but the biodiversity is really going down,” said Kent McFarland of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. Last year, a VCE sampling showed some alarming results: of the 17 species of bumblebees historically resident in the Green Mountain State, four could not be found.

“Anywhere they’ve done any surveys, it’s the same story. It’s pretty bad. I don’t think there’s anything unique here,” said McFarland.

Leif Richardson, a Dartmouth doctoral candidate who researches bumblebees, agrees: “We don’t have a complete picture yet. But in my opinion, things are pretty bad for bumblebees and some other native bees. There are lots of studies that have shown declines in species of bumblebees over time” – from the Northeast, Midwest, West, and the Canadian province of Ontario. “At the same time, some species have become much more common,” Richardson said.

James Strange, a research entomologist and bumblebee specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, said perhaps as many as 20 percent of the 38 or 40 (depending on how you count them) species of bumblebee in the U.S. are in trouble.

Essentially, this is the story of our age, whether it’s birds, butterflies, amphibians, or small mammals. Biodiversity is taking it on the chin.

“There is a theory of ecosystem resilience, which says that as we lose more and more of these species, our ecosystems become less able to withstand major changes. So while one species may disappear or decline, and that is not going to affect our food chain, it raises the pressure on the functioning of the ecosystem and stakes go up with each species we lose,” said Strange.

In bumblebees, the problem is masked somewhat by sheer numbers – there are still a lot of bumblebees out there – and by the difficulty in telling them apart. Color and size aren’t always a good gauge, and scientists must often resort to charting facial shape and body part measurements.

Different facial shapes and tongue lengths enable species to pollinate different types of plants, contributing to diversity in vegetation. And bumblers are important pollinators. They can fly in colder temperatures and in rainy weather when honeybees are loath to leave the hive. Worldwide, notes Richardson, wild bees, including bumblers, are one of the most important crop plant pollinators. In the U.S. and Europe they are sold commercially for pollinating hothouse plants like tomatoes and cucumbers.

So what is causing some bumblebee species’ slide toward extinction? It’s probably several factors, some of which might affect certain species and not others.

The conversion of fields and pastures to housing lots, row crops, or forest undoubtedly has an effect. “In the northeast some of the bees that are disappearing are ones that do very well on some of the plants we grow in pasture,” said Strange. Pathogens such as Crithidia bombi and Nosema bombi may play a part as well. The particular Nosema strain playing havoc with bumblers in North America apparently came from Europe with bees bred for greenhouse pollination. Pesticides? Maybe. Not enough research has been done, said Strange. “I won’t say it’s not a factor – it probably is – but we just haven’t gotten there yet.”

What’s the answer?

Increased public awareness about the plight of pollinators is good, but researchers say more is needed. It would help if homeowners, farmers, and ranchers sowed bee plants at the edges of lawns and fields; also, if there was more money for research and captive breeding of species in trouble, and if there were limits on the movement of biological material that has caused so much environmental havoc around the globe.

Even if those things are implemented, it will probably be too late for species such as Franklin’s bumblebee, Bombus franklini, of the west coast, or the rusty-patched bumblebee, Bombus affinis, of the eastern U.S.

But McFarland isn’t giving up. He’s getting ready for the second year of the Vermont Bumblebee Survey, this time with a focus on the southern Champlain Valley and the Northeast Kingdom. They could use more volunteers, he said. The more volunteers, the more data; the more data, “the greater the chance that we can learn what’s going on.”

Joe Rankin is a freelance writer and beekeeper who lives in central Maine. The illustration for this column was drawn by Adelaide Tyrol. The Outside Story is assigned and edited by Northern Woodlands magazine and sponsored by the Wellborn Ecology Fund of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation: wellborn@nhcf.org.

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The Adirondack Almanack publishes occasional guest essays from Adirondack residents, visitors, and those with an interest in the Adirondack Park. Submissions should be directed to Almanack editor Melissa Hart at editor@adirondackalmanack.com




3 Responses

  1. Charlie says:

    “But in my opinion, things are pretty bad for bumblebees and some other native bees.”

    In my opinion things are not good for the human race the way we’re going.If we could just focus on taking money out of the equation maybe there’d be hope for planet earth,the only home we know.There’s a field here where I live in the middle of town where used to be an old building that they took down a few years ago. Plant-life has taken over this vacant lot since the cement was whisked away,red clover and other flowering plants.This time of the year those flowers try their darndest to bloom and O’ what pleasing perfume odors they emit when they pop up out of the ground and spread their petals.Bees come to them,birds and butterflies.And wouldn’t you know just when that field is in full bloom,and those lesser species are in all their glee,the city workers come along with their sharp blades and cut it down. They could care less about the bees and butterflies.And if they see a critter they wont slow,they’ll continue on and run it over.Mindlessness they call that.This society is chock full of that… mindlessness that is. Me,the oddball,finds it strange how we just continue destroying every last living thing that gets in our way.
    I sat down with the new mayor a month or so ago and I must say politicians are stuck in small worlds.It’s all about economics with them,and of course they must please this cosmetic society who’d rather see an empty lot mowed and looking purty than have beautiful flowers growing in it.
    This economic and cosmetic mentality is going to be the downfall of humanity on this wee orb drifting in space…the only home we know. When I suggested to the new mayor that bees are having a problem,and that monarch butterflies numbers are in decline,and that maybe we should let flowers grow so as to encourage those lesser species to propagate their kind….he thought I was nuts.
    It saddens me to think all of the damage we are doing yet nothing is being done to protect what species remain. You’d think we’d start slowing down our destructive behavior by now,but no,we’re going full steam ahead doing the same things we’ve been doing for years on end.We’re on a race to the bottom.
    I went to the anti-fracking rally at Albany today and one of the speakers was right on with what he said.He said “We vote for our elected officials so that they may be there for us,but they are not there for us,they are there for the people with money.” And this is why bumblebees and honeybees and birds and butterflies and many other species are declining in numbers……because money is more important than them.Because oil and natural gas is more important than water.Because profit from selling pesticides, herbicides, fungicides… to a mindless homeowner is more important than the worms they kill,or the birds that come in contact with those toxic lawns then go off alone and die somewhere.Because the people who are running the show,the puppets who serve the rich,are lacking soul is why bumblebees are in decline Joe. We’re poisoning the planet Joe.Is why species are dying. ABC! Add to this the population in their half slumber and you gotta know….there’s no hope for the us.It a sad affair indeed.

  2. Chris Denno says:

    Well Charlie, you can’t change the world, but you surely can make a difference in that one lot. If you did have a meeting with your mayor he must be somewhat responsive to your situation. Why don’t you offer to care for the lot, either by yourself or with some friends? You might have a small area of mowed grass and lots of wild flowers. A city lot left untended usually attracts lots of garbage, and many would object to that.

  3. Charlie says:

    I can’t change the world but I could make changes in little increments,which is what I instinctively do on a daily basis.It’s not enough though Chris.Talking to the mayor I was under the impression that lot ‘has’ to be mowed,probaly because weeds,even though they flower,are weeds nonetheless and an eyesore to a society that doesn’t see the beauty I see evidently. That lot,whether mowed or not,is a dumping ground.But then what isn’t a dumping ground anymore? As far as anybody objecting to garbage being dumped in a lot I don’t see it happening.We’re used to it by now Chris,it’s the American way.

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