WARNING: DON'T TAKE THE BEE OUT OF BUSINESS
Tony Juniper set out to find the value of Nature to the economy. For food and
farming, imperiled insects are crucial, he reports.
William Thatcher set up business in the village of Sandford in 1904. The company bearing his
name remains there today, its buildings spread along the main road and between the houses
that lie beneath an oak- and ash-clad spur of the Mendip Hills and just next to the Somerset
Levels.
Six-meter-high oak vats dating back about a hundred years are still in use. They have recently
been joined by a battery of 24 stainless-steel fermenting vessels holding 60,000 liters apiece.
This and other processing equipment enables Thatchers to produce about 50 million liters of
cider per year. At full steam the factory can fill 20,000 bottles an hour. Thatchers turned over
about £60 million in 2013 and exported to several overseas markets, including the United States
and Australia. It is a British business success story, in 2013 growing 23% – the lowest rate of
growth it had seen in eight years!
Behind Thatchers’ success is a trusted brand, a lot of technology, complex logistics, good
supplier relations and business acumen. Less obvious is an even more fundamental asset:
insects.
More than 500 hectares of apple trees each year supply the company with about 20,000 tons of
fruit. For the trees to produce the apples harvested in late summer and autumn it is vital that in
spring their flowers are pollinated. That mostly happens through flying insects passing from
blossom to blossom, as they collect nectar and pollen to eat.
The insects that pollinate the apples, which make the cider that gets sold to sustain a multimillion-pound
business, are a kind of ecological glue. Take them away, and several bits of a
system can start to fall apart. For example, flowering plants either stop producing seed or fruit,
make much less of it, or change the quality of what they do produce. When it comes to
conserving the natural environment, this is important to understand. It is arguably even more so
in relation to food (and drink) security. About two-thirds of the world’s crop plant species rely on
animal pollination, and to that extent bees, butterflies, beetles and all the other species that help
plants to complete their life cycles ensure that we continue to eat.
The loss of pollinators has already emerged as a major challenge for farming, for example in
parts of California and China. Although that point has not yet been reached in most places, the
rapid decline of pollinators is nonetheless a strategic threat to food production.
While most species of flowering plant rely on animals (mostly insects) to move their pollen
between flowers, some use the wind, including the grain-producing wheat, barley and maize
that occupy much of our farmland. Even so, animal-pollinated crops, such as oilseed rape,
apples, pears and strawberries, comprise about a fifth of the UK’s total cropped area. Many
pasture plants, such as clover, also rely on bees to reproduce, so there’s some dependence on
animal pollinators for livestock, too.
Since 1980 most British landscapes have seen a reduction in wild bee diversity. In line with the
progressive homogenization of our environment, those species that are specialists and
dependent on particular kinds of habitat and/or food plants have fared worst. Many other insect
pollinators are also known to be in decline, among them hoverflies and butterflies.
Behind all this has been the loss of habitats rich in wild flowers. Wild flowers are primarily found
in semi-natural grasslands, mountains, moors and heathlands, woodlands and coastal margins,
and in urban habitats such as parks, gardens and roadside verges. In all cases, there has been
a decline in the quality of these ecosystems. This is a problem for farming because the pool of
pollinators supported by the plants in these places spills out into agricultural areas. Flower-rich
wildlife habitats are not, therefore, only nice to look at and of ecological interest and value for
their own sake: they are also an essential part of the ‘green infrastructure’, in this case
underpinning national food security.
While pondering the dependence of many insects on wild flowers, it is important to remember
that these wild flowers also depend on the insects. A high proportion of wild-flower species
studied are pollination-limited. This means that when there are no pollinators there are no
seeds, over time fewer flowers, and then fewer pollinators.
In line with the reduction in bee diversity, animal-pollinated plants have declined in the UK more
than self- or wind-pollinated species. For example, some 76% of the plant species favored by
bumblebees for gathering the nectar and pollen they need have decreased in frequency.
Decline in particular kinds of plant that have lost their pollinators can also lead to the decline of
species dependent on their leaves, seeds and fruits for food. Changes in plant communities can
then cause knock-on impacts on soil health, water quality and pest regulation, with disruption to
pollinators leading to a spiral of decline in an entire system.
Jeff Ollerton of the University of Northampton is an expert in pollination and its role in
ecosystems. “About 75% of our native plants require insects as pollinators,” he says. “If we
didn’t have the insects to pollinate them, then our populations of native wild flowers would
eventually die out.” And it’s not just little plants that have this dependency: about 60% of our
trees are insect-pollinated.
The loss of semi-natural habitats across the UK since the mid-20th century has been an
important factor behind pollinator loss. Ploughing of meadows, clearance of woodlands,
drainage of wetlands and removal of hedgerows are among the changes that have caused it.
Most of these losses are down to changed farming practices, backed over decades with tens of
billions of pounds-worth of tax-funded subsidies.
Ollerton says a number of pollinators are already lost. “Twenty-three species of bees and
flower-visiting wasps have gone extinct in Britain since about 1850. This maps very closely
against the large-scale changes in agriculture.” The distribution of many other species has
changed markedly. “We’ve got about 250 species of bee that are native. A significant proportion
of those have declined in relation to distribution. We’ve got some bumblebees, for example, that
were once widespread, which are now being pushed up into the Scottish highlands and islands
and out towards Wales.”
This decline in diversity leaves farming more vulnerable. “If all of our pollination is reliant upon
just a small number of species and something happens to those species, then there’s nothing to
fill that gap. That’s one of the values of diverse insect populations – a sort of insurance policy.”
The changes in farming practices have been profound, he adds. “In the 19th century, set-aside
was very common: farmers would leave a field to go fallow, or maybe sow a crop of something
like red clover and then dig it in to build up the fertility of the soil. By the 20th century, when
inorganic nitrogen fertilizers started to be produced, suddenly there was no need to have those
fallow periods or to use clovers – and so farmers could intensify production and use fields all
year around. Therefore that fallow field, that habitat, that resource to be used by pollinators has
disappeared. That was a massive landscape-level change.”
In the wake of the virtual disappearance of semi-natural grasslands, the extinction of wild
honeybees, decline in bumblebees, beetles, butterflies and others, some assume that
domesticated honeybees will fill the gap. Here, too, there is cause for concern. For a start, there
are far fewer hives. The high point was in 1949, when in England there were 87,000 beekeepers
and 465,000 colonies. The post-war popularity of beekeeping was less to do with pollination and
more about sugar rationing. When rationing was lifted in 1953, beekeeping for honey became
less necessary and by 1970 the number of beekeepers in England and Wales had dropped to
about 32,000, running about 158,000 colonies between them.
Beekeeping has since become more popular again, in part because of growing awareness
about the loss of wild pollinators. It is estimated that during 2009 there were 40,000 beekeepers
and 200,000 colonies, including approximately 300 commercial beekeepers managing between
them 40,000 colonies.
The recent rise in beekeeping has, however, been accompanied by a rise in bee colony
collapse, a process leading to the death of a hive. Some cases are linked to the parasitic Varroa
mite that infests hives and increases the bees’ susceptibility to harmful diseases.
On top of this are the effects of pesticides. Around 31,000 tons of chemicals are used in farming
in the UK each year to kill weeds and insects and other pests that attack crops. There is
surprisingly little control over how these chemicals are used (in the non-organic sector at least)
or in what quantities and combinations. These chemicals affect both wild and domesticated
pollinators and include consequences that range from death to changed behavior and increased
susceptibility to disease. In recent years there has been controversy over the role in both wild
and domesticated bee decline of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Designed to affect
the central nervous system of insects, these substances cause behavior change, paralysis and
death.
In experiments that exposed bumblebees to a widely used neonicotinoid substance called
imidacloprid at a level the insects would experience in visiting a field of treated oilseed rape
plants, the insects were found to forage less effectively, colony size shrank by about 10% and,
most worrying, they lost almost all their ability to produce queens. Queens are the only
bumblebee colony members to live over winter, and without them new groups can’t be founde
คำเตือน: อย่าผึ้งออกจากธุรกิจจูนิเปอร์โทนี่ตั้งออกเพื่อหาค่าของลักษณะเศรษฐกิจ สำหรับอาหาร และทำนา imperiled แมลงมีความสำคัญ เขารายงานWilliam Thatcher ได้ธุรกิจในหมู่บ้านแซนด์ฟอร์ดใน 1904 บริษัทเรืองของเขาชื่อยังคงมีวันนี้ อาคารที่กระจายไป ตามถนนหลัก และ ระหว่างบ้านที่อยู่ภายใต้การห่มโอ๊ค และเถ้าเดือย ของ ภูเขา Mendip และใกล้ กับโรงการระดับการVats โอ๊ค 6 เมตรสูงราวหนึ่งร้อยปีจะใช้ มีล่าการเข้าร่วม โดยแบตเตอรี่ของ 24 เหล็กสแตนเลส fermenting เรือถือ 60000 ลิตรต่ออันนี้และอุปกรณ์ประมวลผลอื่น ๆ ช่วยให้ Thatchers ในการผลิตประมาณ 50 ล้านลิตรแดงต่อปี ที่อบไอน้ำเต็ม โรงงานสามารถกรอกขวด 20000 อันชั่วโมง Thatchers ที่เปิดมากกว่าเกี่ยวกับ 60 ล้านปอนด์ใน 2013 และส่งออกไปตลาดต่างประเทศหลาย รวมทั้งสหรัฐอเมริกาและออสเตรเลีย เป็นเรื่องราวความสำเร็จ ธุรกิจที่อังกฤษในปี 2013 เติบโต 23%-อัตราต่ำสุดเจริญเติบโตที่จะได้เห็นในแปดปีอยู่เบื้องหลังความสำเร็จของ Thatchers เป็นแบรนด์น่าเชื่อถือ เทคโนโลยี โลจิสติกส์คอมเพล็กซ์ มากดีความสัมพันธ์ผู้จัดจำหน่ายและธุรกิจอคิวเมนท์ น้อยชัดเจนคือสินทรัพย์พื้นฐานมาก:แมลงต้นไม้แอปเปิ้ลมากกว่า 500 เฮกเตอร์แต่ละปีจัดหาบริษัท มีประมาณ 20000 ตันผลไม้ สำหรับต้นไม้ในการผลิตแอปเปิ้ลที่เก็บเกี่ยวในช่วงปลายฤดูร้อนและฤดูใบไม้ร่วงมีความสำคัญว่าสปริงของดอกไม้มี pollinated ที่เกิดขึ้นผ่านการเดินทางผ่านจากแมลงส่วนใหญ่ตกจั่นจะออกดอก ที่เก็บน้ำหวานและละอองเกสรกินแมลงที่ผสมเกสรดอกไม้แอปเปิ้ล ซึ่งทำให้แดงได้รับขายพยุง multimillion-ปอนด์ธุรกิจ มีชนิดของกาวระบบนิเวศ พวกเขาออกไป และบิตต่าง ๆ ของการระบบสามารถเริ่มลงกัน ตัวอย่าง จาวอาจหยุดผลิตเมล็ดหรือผลไม้ทำน้อยมากของมัน หรือเปลี่ยนแปลงคุณภาพของสิ่งที่พวกเขาผลิต เมื่อมันมาถึงอนุรักษ์สิ่งแวดล้อมธรรมชาติ ซึ่งเป็นสิ่งสำคัญที่จะเข้าใจ เป็นว่ายิ่งดังนั้นเกี่ยวกับความปลอดภัยอาหาร (และเครื่องดื่ม) ประมาณสองในสามของโลกพืชพืชชนิดพึ่งพาpollination สัตว์ ผึ้งที่ขอบเขต ผีเสื้อ ด้วง และทั้งหมดนกชนิดอื่นที่ช่วยพืชสมบูรณ์วงจรชีวิตของพวกเขามั่นใจว่า เรายังกินการสูญเสียของ pollinators มีแล้วเกิดเป็นความท้าทายที่สำคัญสำหรับทำการเกษตร เช่นในส่วนของแคลิฟอร์เนียและจีน แม้ว่าจุดนั้นไม่ได้แล้วในสถานลดลงอย่างรวดเร็วของ pollinators เป็นกระนั้นกลยุทธ์ผลิตอาหารในขณะที่พันธุ์พืชดอกส่วนใหญ่พึ่งพาสัตว์ (ส่วนใหญ่เป็นแมลง) เพื่อย้ายของละอองเกสรระหว่างดอกไม้ บางคนใช้ลม รวมทั้งผลิตเมล็ดข้าวสาลี ข้าวบาร์เลย์ และข้าวโพดที่ครอบครองพื้นที่การเกษตรของเรามาก ดังนั้นแม้ pollinated สัตว์พืช เช่น oilseed rapeapples, pears and strawberries, comprise about a fifth of the UK’s total cropped area. Manypasture plants, such as clover, also rely on bees to reproduce, so there’s some dependence onanimal pollinators for livestock, too.Since 1980 most British landscapes have seen a reduction in wild bee diversity. In line with theprogressive homogenization of our environment, those species that are specialists anddependent on particular kinds of habitat and/or food plants have fared worst. Many other insectpollinators are also known to be in decline, among them hoverflies and butterflies.Behind all this has been the loss of habitats rich in wild flowers. Wild flowers are primarily foundin semi-natural grasslands, mountains, moors and heathlands, woodlands and coastal margins,and in urban habitats such as parks, gardens and roadside verges. In all cases, there has beena decline in the quality of these ecosystems. This is a problem for farming because the pool ofpollinators supported by the plants in these places spills out into agricultural areas. Flower-richwildlife habitats are not, therefore, only nice to look at and of ecological interest and value fortheir own sake: they are also an essential part of the ‘green infrastructure’, in this caseunderpinning national food security.While pondering the dependence of many insects on wild flowers, it is important to rememberthat these wild flowers also depend on the insects. A high proportion of wild-flower speciesstudied are pollination-limited. This means that when there are no pollinators there are noseeds, over time fewer flowers, and then fewer pollinators.In line with the reduction in bee diversity, animal-pollinated plants have declined in the UK morethan self- or wind-pollinated species. For example, some 76% of the plant species favored bybumblebees for gathering the nectar and pollen they need have decreased in frequency.Decline in particular kinds of plant that have lost their pollinators can also lead to the decline ofspecies dependent on their leaves, seeds and fruits for food. Changes in plant communities canthen cause knock-on impacts on soil health, water quality and pest regulation, with disruption topollinators leading to a spiral of decline in an entire system.Jeff Ollerton of the University of Northampton is an expert in pollination and its role inecosystems. “About 75% of our native plants require insects as pollinators,” he says. “If wedidn’t have the insects to pollinate them, then our populations of native wild flowers wouldeventually die out.” And it’s not just little plants that have this dependency: about 60% of ourtrees are insect-pollinated.The loss of semi-natural habitats across the UK since the mid-20th century has been animportant factor behind pollinator loss. Ploughing of meadows, clearance of woodlands,drainage of wetlands and removal of hedgerows are among the changes that have caused it.Most of these losses are down to changed farming practices, backed over decades with tens ofbillions of pounds-worth of tax-funded subsidies.Ollerton says a number of pollinators are already lost. “Twenty-three species of bees andflower-visiting wasps have gone extinct in Britain since about 1850. This maps very closelyagainst the large-scale changes in agriculture.” The distribution of many other species haschanged markedly. “We’ve got about 250 species of bee that are native. A significant proportionof those have declined in relation to distribution. We’ve got some bumblebees, for example, thatwere once widespread, which are now being pushed up into the Scottish highlands and islandsand out towards Wales.”This decline in diversity leaves farming more vulnerable. “If all of our pollination is reliant uponjust a small number of species and something happens to those species, then there’s nothing tofill that gap. That’s one of the values of diverse insect populations – a sort of insurance policy.”The changes in farming practices have been profound, he adds. “In the 19th century, set-asidewas very common: farmers would leave a field to go fallow, or maybe sow a crop of somethinglike red clover and then dig it in to build up the fertility of the soil. By the 20th century, wheninorganic nitrogen fertilizers started to be produced, suddenly there was no need to have thosefallow periods or to use clovers – and so farmers could intensify production and use fields all
year around. Therefore that fallow field, that habitat, that resource to be used by pollinators has
disappeared. That was a massive landscape-level change.”
In the wake of the virtual disappearance of semi-natural grasslands, the extinction of wild
honeybees, decline in bumblebees, beetles, butterflies and others, some assume that
domesticated honeybees will fill the gap. Here, too, there is cause for concern. For a start, there
are far fewer hives. The high point was in 1949, when in England there were 87,000 beekeepers
and 465,000 colonies. The post-war popularity of beekeeping was less to do with pollination and
more about sugar rationing. When rationing was lifted in 1953, beekeeping for honey became
less necessary and by 1970 the number of beekeepers in England and Wales had dropped to
about 32,000, running about 158,000 colonies between them.
Beekeeping has since become more popular again, in part because of growing awareness
about the loss of wild pollinators. It is estimated that during 2009 there were 40,000 beekeepers
and 200,000 colonies, including approximately 300 commercial beekeepers managing between
them 40,000 colonies.
The recent rise in beekeeping has, however, been accompanied by a rise in bee colony
collapse, a process leading to the death of a hive. Some cases are linked to the parasitic Varroa
mite that infests hives and increases the bees’ susceptibility to harmful diseases.
On top of this are the effects of pesticides. Around 31,000 tons of chemicals are used in farming
in the UK each year to kill weeds and insects and other pests that attack crops. There is
surprisingly little control over how these chemicals are used (in the non-organic sector at least)
or in what quantities and combinations. These chemicals affect both wild and domesticated
pollinators and include consequences that range from death to changed behavior and increased
susceptibility to disease. In recent years there has been controversy over the role in both wild
and domesticated bee decline of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Designed to affect
the central nervous system of insects, these substances cause behavior change, paralysis and
death.
In experiments that exposed bumblebees to a widely used neonicotinoid substance called
imidacloprid at a level the insects would experience in visiting a field of treated oilseed rape
plants, the insects were found to forage less effectively, colony size shrank by about 10% and,
most worrying, they lost almost all their ability to produce queens. Queens are the only
bumblebee colony members to live over winter, and without them new groups can’t be founde
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