A GAME-CHANGER IN EVALUATING RISK
Protecting Pollinators In Your Own Backyard
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Pollinator protection has long been a significant initiative for agriculture and environmentalists, making the recent threat of diminishing pollinator populations cause for increased concern. Fortunately, as we have learned from society’s response to other environmental concerns like water pollution, when an environmental issue becomes a hot topic in the general population, significant action takes place. With excitement comes a rush of activity; it can be difficult to interpret all the information coming at us at once, |
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weed out the misinformation, and determine what we can do on an individual level to have an impact on pollinator health.
Pollinator protection has long been a significant initiative for agriculture and environmentalists, making the recent threat of diminishing pollinator populations cause for increased concern. Fortunately, as we have learned from society’s response to other environmental concerns like water pollution, when an environmental issue becomes a hot topic in the general population, significant action takes place. With excitement comes a rush of activity; it can be difficult to interpret all the information coming at us at once, weed out the misinformation, and determine what we can do on an individual level to have an impact on pollinator health.
The good news is that every individual, business, farm, and community can work to encourage pollinator health in our backyards and communities. Resources abound and one of the best is the Xerces Society, an organization dedicated to protecting invertebrates, including pollinators. Its website is a tremendous source of information through a plethora of articles, lists, and links to pollinator health information. Xerces makes it easy to zoom in on your location for local information through their map function.
The core principles for encouraging native bees and other pollinators all focus on making appealing, diverse, and nutritional plant life accessible. To achieve this in your space, consider the following... >>Read the full article
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There Are So Many More Bees Than Honey Bees: It's Time to Show Our Native Bees Some Love |
Did you know that there are over 20,000 recognized species of bees around the world, 4,000 of which are native to the United States? Although pollinator protection efforts have been a core focus in ecological stewardship, most of us tend to focus on the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) and miss out on the bulk of the wonderfully diverse pollinator populations found across the globe.
The European honey bee has long been used as the surrogate species for both Apis and non-Apis bees and other insect pollinators in risk assessments. The focus on A. mellifera makes sense for a few reasons: (1) we have a strong understanding of its behavior and ecology, (2) A. mellifera have a long history of management for honey production and, more recently, crop pollination, and (3) this species is commercially... >>Read the full article
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Delicate Pollinator-Plan Relationships: Forged through Coevolution and Critical Considerations for Risk Assessment |
Pollinator-plant relationships represent some of the most striking examples of mutualism and coevolution in all of nature. We’ve discussed in our backyard pollinator protection article how native bees can be generalists, often thriving on a diverse availability of flowering plants. This diversity can be a benefit to bees and plants alike. From a bee’s perspective, diverse food sources can supply a well-rounded diet and from a plant’s perspective, diversity in pollinators helps to assure successful reproduction. However, these symbiotic interactions can be driven by specific pollinator preferences, sometimes to the point of becoming a completely obligate relationship.
Plants are pollinated by different types of animals, the most common of which include bees, flies, butterflies, beetles, moths, bats, and birds. Each of these animal pollinators displays... >>Read the full article
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Let’s Bee Informed About Honey Bee Foraging |
There is something mesmerizing about watching bees at work! These little workers have been agriculturally critical to humans for thousands of years, and over this extended time, we have accumulated a wealth of research about their physiology and behavior. Here, we focus on honey bee foraging behavior, which provides us with a fascinating example of how the honey bee colony functions more as a superorganism than a population of individuals.
Honey bee foragers collect all of the nutritional elements for their colony, including nectar, pollen, and water. Water is sourced close to the colony and used to hydrate and cool the colony during hot weather. Research has shown that pollen foraging, a colony’s main source of protein, minerals, and vitamins, is directed by the colony’s current state. Pollen stores are vital for brood production and healthy development of young within the hive, and pollen foraging has been shown to be regulated by the presence of brood pheromone and young larvae in the colony, as well as the quantity of stored pollen. Nectar, on the other hand, is the primary source of carbohydrates and provides the necessary energy for foragers and the colony as a whole. Honey bees store nectar as honey and securing healthy supplies allows for strong colony maintenance and overwintering... >>Read the rest of the article
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Recent News In Pollinator Protection |
Much of the most recent research in pollinator protection, and in fact a lot of new ecological research in general, is focused on computer model simulations, such as the BEEHAVE model. In particular, recent honeybee-specific projects have incorporated BEEHAVE to simulate the development of a honeybee colony and its nectar and pollen foraging behavior in different landscapes. BEEHAVE additionally allows for representation of multiple stressors to honeybee colonies and predicts the potential impact on colony development and survival.
Our Effects Team has used the BEEHAVE model for various projects and found it invaluable in honeybee colony predications. For example, in collaboration with the Pollinator Research Task Force, we recently released a 2-part publication series in Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry presenting, 1) a model validation of BEEHAVE using large-scale colony feeding studies, which can be used to inform the use of BEEHAVE to higher-tier ecological risk assessments, and 2) an application of BEEHAVE to analyze overwintering outcomes from simulated large-scale colony feeding studies. The findings from this work can be used to inform study designs for a large-scale colony feeding study in order to improve overwintering success in control hives and drive consistency within and across studies.
BEEHAVE was a star at May’s 2021 SETAC Europe conference where a new mechanistic effect model (BEEHAVE-Ecotox) was demonstrated to link realistic exposures of bees in the field with subsequent effects on different levels... >>Read the full article
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Waterborne at ACS National Meeting 2021 |
Waterborne’s Lead Ecotoxicologist, Jenn Collins will be co-chairing and presenting during the upcoming pollinator session of the American Chemical Society National Meeting in August. Other co-chairs for this session include environmental scientist John Purdy, Tom Steeger and Katrina White from the US EPA, and Annie Krueger from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This session is gearing up to be full of great presentations and new considerations for pollinator risk assessment. |
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Bees Are Part of Our Waterborne Family! |
Pat Holden, Waterborne’s co-founder, is pursuing his passion for beekeeping from his home in Virginia. |
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Waterborne Environmental is a renowned consulting firm that has provided innovative solutions to the world’s most complex environmental problems since 1993. Our experienced, unbiased scientists and engineers work across industries to evaluate environmental, ecological, and human risks. Our work spans across industry and regulatory agencies to support the balance in the needs of a growing population with the environmental impact on our valuable natural resources.
Our The Current Newsletter is published monthly. Visit us online to find more articles, videos, and information about our work. Click here to contact us.
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