Pollinators in Peril: Bee Aware!

Pollinators really pack a punch! They are absolutely essential to so many parts of our daily lives: from the coffee in your morning cup to the fruits in your lunch to the cocoa in your post-exam treat, they’ve had a hand (or a wing!) in putting them there. If you eat meat or dairy products, much of that depends on them too, since the clover and alfalfa fed to cows and pigs also rely on pollinators to thrive (Xerces). Of all the food in the world, one out of every three bites eaten is thanks to animal pollinators (USDA). They’re also responsible for three-quarters of all flowering plants, so if you’ve ever enjoyed a patch of wildflowers or a bouquet of daisies, you’ve benefited from their work.

There are many different kinds of pollinators: while you may already be familiar with bees and butterflies, other interesting species include Mexican long-nosed bats in the American Southwest, blue-tailed day geckos on the Mascarene Islands, elephant shrews in Africa, and honey possums in Australia (Beaty, 2020). The European honey bee, however, is the most common pollinator in the world, and though it is not originally native to the Americas, it forms the backbone of our agricultural system. A large portion of commercial crops are even pollinated by “mobile bee hives,” which are transported by truck across the country to meet the needs of farms. More than two million hives are trucked into California annually, largely in February and March for almond production (Champetier et al., 2019). While honey bees are important to human food systems and the economy, native pollinators are extremely important ecologically, as they are often better adapted at pollinating native plants and play key roles in the webs of interactions forming local ecosystems.

Despite all they do for us, pollinators around the world are in trouble. Around the end of the 20th century, scientists started to notice declines (downward trends) in pollinator populations across a variety of species and ecosystems; to date, up to 40% of all pollinator species have been a part of this worldwide pattern (Hanberry et al., 2021). Though the full extent of the problem is not entirely clear, the consensus is that the continued loss of these keystones for survival is extremely dire. Currently, several different factors are considered to contribute to this problem, and all of them are anthropogenic (human-caused). The top two drivers of concern to be discussed are habitat loss, mainly manifesting through agricultural land-use conversion, and overuse of pesticides, which similarly stems from unsustainable agricultural management. The impacts of Colony Collapse Disorder will also be briefly discussed.

Habitat loss is a major driver of pollinator decline, coming mainly from the expansion of industrial agriculture. Ironically, converting large swaths of diverse ecosystems into crop-ready fields usually renders them inhospitable to the very pollinators on which those crops rely. One example of this is deforestation of the Amazon to make room for more farms: this threatens survival of the charismatic native charismatic orchid bee, a crucial foundation of the Brazil nut production which forms the livelihood of 300,000 people (Herring, 2024). Without the canopy of the trees and a varied assortment of other plants available, however, orchid bees are unable to find enough resources to nest and feed. Looking closer to home, the destruction of the tallgrass prairies that once covered the middle of the country has had a catastrophic impact on native pollinator populations, as over 95% of this land has been converted to farmland (Larson et al., 2013). Because of this, the native milkweed plants that serve as the only hosts of the endangered monarch butterfly have been decimated, and from 1996 to 2020, the US Fish and Wildlife Service found that eastern populations of monarchs had plunged 88%, dropping from 383 million to only 45 million.

In addition to depriving pollinators of the spaces they’re adapted to find food and reproduce within, the majority of farmland worldwide is “monoculture,” meaning that only one crop is planted in each field at a time (Ólafsson, 2023). This practice causes an astronomical drop in plant species biodiversity, and the resulting lack of pollen variety can lead to illness within hives. Without an adequate mix of different species to collect pollen from, bees can suffer from weakened immune systems, an unfortunate effect of this “nutritional stress” (Parreño et al., 2022). Monoculture crops also go hand in hand with excessive pesticide use, since having only one species throws off the natural balance of interactions, causing unwanted pest insects like locusts to multiply out of control. 

Chemical pesticides are another significant influence on this trend, as their overuse in pursuit of feeding a growing human population has had significant impacts on “beneficial” insects such as bees and butterflies. One popular class chemically similar to nicotine, neonicotinoids, is used to kill unwanted insects by binding to their nerve cells and paralyzing them (Gupta et al., 2019). Since all insects have similar nervous systems, neonicotinoids cannot target specific species, and they’ve been found to be extremely toxic to honey bees: even small amounts can cause problems with memory, flight, and their sense of taste, which all harm their ability to gather food and function within the hive (Xerces). 

Even though the pesticides in use today have been proven to harm pollinators as well as other organisms in the environment, they’re often used in excess of necessary levels. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation estimates that as much as 44% of soybean and 100% of corn seeds are treated with insecticides “prophylactically,” which means they are coated with these chemicals “regardless of whether there is a pest of concern” (Black, 2016). Better management strategies would only use chemical pesticides when absolutely necessary, avoiding a glut of toxic chemicals in the environment. 

Pesticide exposure has also been identified as a possible driver of “Colony Collapse Disorder,” a phenomenon first observed in 2006 where the majority of adult bees abandon a hive with its queen and young bees still inside (EPA, 2024). Hives cannot continue to function without adult worker bees, so abandonment means death for those remaining. Commercial beekeepers have struggled to find the root cause of this disorder, but in addition to pesticide exposure, possible factors include the impacts of parasites, diseases, management-induced stress (such as through transport), changes to habitat, and poor nutrition in general.

The world is already feeling the effects of this decline: one modeling study published in Environmental Health Perspectives gauged the impacts of inadequate pollination at a 4.7% global loss in fruit production and a 3.2% global loss in vegetable production (Smith et al., 2022). This was estimated through finding a “yield gap,” the difference in harvest between high-producing and low-producing fields, and calculating how much of that stemmed from insufficient pollination (Smith et al., 2022). Considering how accessibility of fruits and vegetables impact diet and health, the researchers found that these reductions have had deadly effects: their model showed that these losses in harvested produce contribute to 427,000 excess (above the expected amount) deaths per year worldwide. The majority of these deaths are attributed to the link between higher fruit and vegetable consumption and lowered risk of chronic diseases, including stroke, heart disease, and multiple cancers. Looking closer, they found that lower-income countries had the largest loss in food production, partly linking this situation to issues of global environmental justice, but in terms of sheer mortality, middle-income nations were hit hardest because of their high populations and significant existing rates of chronic disease. This study clearly illustrates the interconnected nature of human health and the health of pollinators, showing how efforts to slow or even reverse this downward trend are truly life-saving.

The worldwide pattern of pollinators in decline must be addressed if we want to create viable food systems and healthy ecosystems for the future. Since pollinators are impacted most by unsustainable agricultural management, their survival is linked to how successful farms are at shifting to eco-conscious solutions. Reducing pesticide use is vital, so embracing integrated pest management, where chemical applications are minimized and supplemented with non-chemical approaches, is essential. Moving away from monoculture fields by practicing interplanting (mixing different crops together in the same space) is also a highly effective way to benefit pollinators while controlling real pests. On an individual level, you can help protect pollinators by volunteering at a local habitat restoration group, opting to plant native flowers in your garden, and looking for alternatives to chemical pesticides. Above all, we should be closely observing the pollinators around us and their work; if we don’t notice them now, we’ll certainly notice their absence. 

 

Works Cited

Beaty, C. (2020, June 21). “10 Amazing Pollinators You Might Not Know About.” Wildlife Habitat Council. https://www.wildlifehc.org/10-amazing-pollinators-you-might-not-know-about/

Black, S.H. (9 Sept. 2016). “Pollinator Conservation in Agriculture.” Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, xerces.org/blog/pollinator-conservation-in-agriculture. 

Champetier, A., Lee, H., and Sumner, D.A. (2019). “Honey, Forage and Almond-Pollinating Honey Bees.” Choices. Quarter 4. http://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/pollination-service-markets-evolution-and-outlook/honey-forage-and-almond-pollinating-honey-be 

“Colony Collapse Disorder.” (2018, April 26). United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colony-collapse-disorder 

Gupta, R.C., Miller Mukherjee, I.R., Malik, J.K., Doss, R.B., Dettbarn, W., Milatovic, D. (2019).

Chapter 26 – Insecticides, Editor(s): Ramesh C. Gupta, Biomarkers in Toxicology (Second Edition), Academic Press, Pages 455-475, ISBN 9780128146552, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814655-2.00026-8. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128146552000268)

Hanberry, B., DeBano, S., Kaye, T., Rowland, M., Hartway, C., Shorrock, D. (2021). Pollinators of the Great Plains: Disturbances, Stressors, Management, and Research Needs, Rangeland Ecology & Management, Volume 78, Pages 220-234, ISSN 1550-7424, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2020.08.006. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550742420300865) 

Herring, M. (2024, June 5). Amazon deforestation threatens one of Brazil’s key pollinators, study shows. Mongabay Environmental News. https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/amazon-deforestation-threatens-one-of-brazils-key-pollinators-study-shows/

Holland, J.S. (2013). “The Plight of the Honeybee.” History, National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/130510-honeybee-bee-science-european-union-pesticides-colony-collapse-epa-science 

“How Neonicotinoids Can Kill Bees.” Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, https://www.xerces.org/publications/scientific-reports/how-neonicotinoids-can-kill-bees.

Klein, J. (2016, December 2). “You’re a Bee. This Is What It Feels Like.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/02/science/bees-pollen-senses.html

Larson, D.M., Dodds, W.K., Jackson, K.E., Whiles, M.R., Winders, K.R. (2013). Ecosystem characteristics of remnant, headwater tallgrass prairie streams. J Environ Qual. 2013 Jan-Feb;42(1):239-49. doi: 10.2134/jeq2012.0226. PMID: 23673759.

McFarland, L. (2022, August 9). “All About Milkweed.” Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust (DNRT). https://dnrt.org/all-about-milkweed/

Ólafsson, B. (2023, September 27). “What Monoculture Farming Is, and Why It Matters.” Sentient Media. https://sentientmedia.org/monoculture/

Parreño, M.A., Alaux, C., C., Brunet, J.L., Buydens, L., Filipiak, M., Henry, M., Keller, A., Klein, A.M., Kuhlmann, M., Leroy, C., Meeus, I., Palmer-Young, E., Piot, N., Requier, F., Ruedenauer, F., Smagghe, G., Stevenson, P.C., Leonhardt, S.D. (2022). Critical links between biodiversity and health in wild bee conservation, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Volume 37, Issue 4, Pages 309-321, ISSN 0169-5347, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.11.013. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534721003335)

“Plight of the Monarch” (2021, August 31). U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. https://www.fws.gov/story/2021-08/plight-monarch

Smith, M. R., Mueller, N. D., Springmann, M., Sulser, T. B., Garibaldi, L. A., Gerber, J., et al. (2022). Pollinator deficits, food consumption, and consequences for human health: A modeling study. Environ. Health Perspect. 130, 127003. doi: 10.1289/EHP10947

“The Importance of Pollinators.” (n.d.). U.S. Department of Agriculture. https://www.usda.gov/peoples-garden/pollinators 

“‌What’s At Stake?” (n.d.). Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. https://www.xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/whats-at-stake