[Pollinator] Still Time to Register for the Penn State International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Health and Policy

[Scott Black]

Still Time to Register for the Penn State 
International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Health and Policy


(<http://www.i-newswire.com>I-Newswire) June 22, 
2010 - Top researchers, government officials and 
representatives of organizations from around the 
world will present their latest findings on honey 
bees and other pollinators at the inaugural 
International Conference on Pollinator Biology, 
Health and Policy being hosted by the Penn State 
Center for Pollinator Research, July 24-28, 2010, 
at the University Park campus.

Worldwide, pollinators such as honeybees, 
solitary bees, hummingbirds and bats are 
declining due to habitat loss, diseases, pests 
and excessive pesticide use. "Pollinators are 
essential because they are responsible for one 
out of every three bites of food you eat," said 
Diana Cox-Foster, Penn State professor of 
entomology, who will present at the conference. 
"More than 80 percent of all flowering plants 
depend on our pollinators for survival."

The plight of pollinators has been highlighted in 
reports of Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD. CCD 
was first discovered in November 2006 after a 
Pennsylvania beekeeper reported that more than 50 
percent of the bee colonies he was overwintering 
in Florida had collapsed. Tens of thousands of 
bees in each hive had simply disappeared.

"Since then, beekeepers from all over the country 
have been reporting unprecedented losses," said 
Maryann Frazier, apiculture extension associate 
in the College of Agricultural Sciences. 
According to Frazier, symptoms of CCD include the 
sudden reduction or disappearance of the adult 
bee population without evidence of dead bees. 
"The hive will contain brood, pollen and honey, 
with little evidence of robbing by other bee 
colonies or attack by pests such as wax moth or small hive beetle."

Even before the discovery of CCD, pollinators 
were in decline. According to Cox-Foster, four 
species of bumble bees are going extinct, and 
more than 50 pollinator species are threatened or 
endangered. In addition, wild honeybee 
populations have dropped 25 percent since 1990.

The focus of the conference will be current 
research on the factors influencing pollinator 
decline, as well as policies and practices 
related to pollinator conservation. The keynote 
speaker will be Dr. May Berenbaum, professor and 
head of the Department of Entomology at the 
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 
Berenbaum is internationally recognized for her 
research and conservation efforts related to 
pollinators, including chairing the National 
Research Council’s Committee on the Status of 
Pollinators in North America in 2007.

In addition, a Pollinator Conservation Short 
Course will be offered by the Xerces Society at 
the conclusion of the conference on July 29. 
Topics will include the basic principles of 
pollinator biology, the economics of insect 
pollination, recognizing native bee species and 
assessment of pollinator habitat.

The conference is being sponsored by Häagen-Dazs, 
the National Honey Board, Anthropologie/Urban 
Outfitters, Bayer CropScience, Syngenta, the 
Almond Board of California, and Penn State's 
Department of Entomology, College of Agricultural 
Sciences, and Huck Institutes of the Life 
Sciences. More information and online 
registration are available at http://agsci.psu.edu/pollinator-conference.





*************************
Scott Hoffman Black
Ecologist/Entomologist
Executive Director
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
4828 SE Hawthorne
Portland, OR 97215
Direct line (503) 449-3792
sblack at xerces.org

The Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit 
organization that protects wildlife through the 
conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.

To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work,
please visit <http://www.xerces.org/>www.xerces.org.


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