Bees Are Doing Fine – Or Are They

The Washington Post tells us, despite all you might hear, that bees are doing just fine.  Of course the Post is telling us the good news related to commercial honey-producing bee colonies.  Colonies that are intensively and, expensively, managed by humans for profit.

The bees you're more familiar with — the ones that buzz around your yard dipping into flowers, making honey, pollinating crops and generally keeping the world's food supply from collapsing? Those bees are doing just fine, according to data released by the USDA this year.

In 2015, there were 2.66 million commercial honey-producing bee colonies in the United States. That's down slightly from the 2.74 million colonies in 2014, which represented a two-decade high. The number of commercial bee colonies is still significantly higher than it was in 2006, when colony collapse disorder — the mass die-offs that began afflicting U.S. honeybee colonies — was first documented.

On the other hand, wild bees, the ones that do the busy work in forests and grasslands, those bees might be having a bit tougher time.

Of course, the discussion above concerns  only commercial bees that are managed by humans and businesses. Wild bees — whether they're honeybees or one of our 4,000 other native bee species — face different difficulties. If those species suffer die-offs, there's nobody around to breed new queens and help them recover. Wild bees are on their own.

Recent research has shown that the use of certain insecticides called neonicotinoids has been linked to declines in wild bee populations. But assessing the true magnitude of the effect is difficult, because it's a lot harder to survey wild bee populations than domesticated ones.

Birds Do It – Apparently So Do Bees

Corvids (ravens, crows, etc) routinely demonstrate the ability to learn to solve puzzles and use tools.  Now researchers have taught bees how to get a reward by pulling a string.  This knowledge is then passed on the other bees and survives even as the first learners die.  This opens some serious discussion about how early hominids developed and passed on skills.

"What I like about the work," Dr. Chittka said in a press release, "in addition to the experimental and intellectual challenges and insights, is the sheer absurdity of seeing bees solving a string-pulling puzzle. When lead author Sylvain Alem first showed me a bee successfully pulling on the string, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.  And even now, looking at the videos still makes me laugh."

The implications of the study could be transposed to the history of human evolution, shedding light onto how humans may have developed sophisticated forms of learning processes and cognitive skills throughout generations, tracing back to early tool-using hominids.

So, the question is – if birds do it, bees do it and multitudes of other creatures do similar things, how unique is human intelligence?  Maybe not unique at all.

A First for Bees

Their importance to plant life is uncontested, yet their survival is uncertain.  Here is a start, in Hawaii, for a limited number of species.

After years of study, the US Fish and Wildlife Service have placed seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees on the endangered species list, the first time any bee have received such classification.

The bees are native to Hawaii, and have been declining for a number of years due to intrusion from non-native plants and animals, as well as habitat destruction due to urban development. Scientists note that these bees are an integral to the Hawaiian ecosystem as pollinators, and that they are “critical for maintaining the health of plants and other animals across the islands,” according to conservation and restoration team manager Gregory Koob, of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Honolulu.

But, as we wrote in May, food production in America’s most vital agricultural region could be dramatically impacted by our failure to protect bees.

DAILY QUICK READ - AUGUST 17, 2016

Nutrients– I’m OK With That

But, fish pee as a key component in reef health.  I’ll let the research lead where it does.  Still, fish pee…

Recent studies suggest that coral reefs, however, are just as dependent on these fish for key nutrients that help coral grow. When fish urinate, they release phosphorus into the water. This phosphorus, along with nitrogen excreted as ammonium through the gills of fish, is crucial to the survival and growth of coral reefs.

A new study appearing Aug. 16 in Nature Communications takes this a step further, finding that in coral reefs where fishing occurs, nearly half of these key nutrients are absent from the ecosystem.

The main reason? Fewer large-bodied and predator fish to pee nutrients into the water, the study found.

“Part of the reason coral reefs work is because animals play a big role in moving nutrients around,” said lead author Jacob Allgeier, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

Why Is This Still A Discussion?

Neonicotinoids are a major factor in bee colony extinction.   It seems like a good idea to do something about it.

New research has provided some of the strongest evidence yet that pesticides can do serious, long-term damage to bee populations. And the findings may help fuel the ongoing debate about whether certain insecticides should be permitted for agricultural use at all.

The new study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, examines the question of whether the use of a common (and highly controversial) class of pesticides called neonicotinoids can be linked to wild bee declines in England. The results suggest that this could be the case.

Endangered Species Protection – Or Lack of Same

Any suspicion that Republican budget cuts and foot dragging impact the ability of the government to evaluation and implement provisions of the Endangered Species Act?

Endangered species are waiting in long lines for the federal government to make a decision.

That’s the conclusion of a study in the journal Biological Conservation on wait times for listing a species under the Endangered Species Act.

Emily Puckett is the lead author of the study. She’s a postdoctoral associate with Fordham University. She analyzed what happened with 1,338 species since 1974. She says according to the law, it’s supposed to take about two years to get through the process.

“The median time that they’re waiting is 12.1 years and not that two years. Some species are being listed very quickly, but other species have essentially waited the entire length of the ESA, up to 38 years before they’re ever listed," she says.

Puckett says reptiles, fish, and mammals had much shorter wait times than invertebrates and plants. She says one reason might be that many people have an easier time feeling affection for, say, an eagle, than a snail.

Saving Wildlife In Africa

Thoughtful discussion that questions the philosophy of making wildlife a state owned entity has opposed to a resource to local communities.  Also, touches on the question of conservation colonialism.

Cottar views bad policy as inherently damaging for wildlife as “African governments continue to impose inherited variations of colonial-era game laws, which make wildlife a state-owned asset.” He also observes that Kenya, “under pressure from animal rights-oriented NGOs, has chosen to use this state monopoly of wildlife to impose complete bans and moratoriums on all commoditization or consumptive use of wildlife, applying the theory that the more ‘devalued’ the wildlife, the less incentive local people have to kill it.”

 In other words, if Kenya’s natural resources are unavailable to landowners, they will simply let it be, an idea that organizations like the International Union for Conservation of Nature view as both illogical and impractical.

 Kenya’s policies are especially damaging since the presence of wildlife causes losses of up to 48 percent of productivity revenues from agriculture and domestic livestock, mostly due to predation, crop damage, disease transfer, and infrastructure damage (Norton-Griffiths 2007). Should an old, deposed lion, for example, repeatedly prey on a Maasai pastoralist’s cattle, the pastoralist is not legally allowed to take any action in defense of his livelihood that would result in the death of the big cat.

 Though this law looks good on paper for the offending lion, what usually follows is a much worse fate than if that lion was permitted to be dealt with legally. More often than not, that same herdsman will simply poison an entire pride illegally instead.

Is California Burning?

Global warming might have something to do with decades of low precipitation in the Western US.  Oh, and the five year drought in California.  And, let’s now forget the potential for a megadrought if we don’t reduce carbon emissions.

Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in the fast-moving Blue Cut Fire that has exploded to 15,000 acres and forced more than 82,000 people out of their homes since it broke out Tuesday morning in the Cajon Pass, officials said.

"There is imminent threat to public safety, rail traffic and structures in the Cajon Pass, Lytle Creek, Wrightwood and surrounding areas," according to the Inciweb page.

An estimated 34,500 homes and 82,640 people have been affected by the evacuation warnings.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s officials were asking residents to heed evacuation orders for their safety.

About 700 fire personnel from the county fire department, CalFire and the San Bernardino National Forest are on scene. Water and fire retardant drops are being made over the fire.

Six San Bernardino County firefighters were entrapped by flames while battling the fire and two of them suffered minor injuries.

An unknown number of structures have been damaged and destroyed.