[Pollinator] Global bee monitoring network could stave off crop crisis

[David Inouye]

<http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2012/12/bee-count/>Bee 
Count (from Conservation Magazine)



Global bee monitoring network could stave off crop crisis

Crop-pollinating bees are worth billions of 
dollars to the agricultural industry, but 
scientists don’t have a good way to monitor the 
populations of these valuable insects. In 
Conservation Biology, researchers propose a 
global sampling program that could do the job for about 2 million dollars.

Insects pollinate about 190.5 billion dollars’ 
worth of crops every year. These 
insect-pollinated crops often command a higher 
price than crops pollinated by wind. But 
commercial bee colonies have been devastated in 
recent years by colony collapse disorder. And “no 
monitoring program exists to accurately detect 
declines in abundance of insect pollinators,” the study authors write.

The team examined 11 bee sampling studies, which 
used methods such as pan traps or netting. The 
researchers then ran simulations to figure out 
how much sampling would be needed to detect declines of 1 to 7 percent.

Monitoring 200 to 250 sites for five years would 
allow researchers to detect declines of 2 to 5 
percent per year, the team reports. Such a 
program would cost about 2 million dollars, but 
the authors point out that this number pales in 
comparison to the cost of losing insect 
pollinators. By catching potential problems 
early, managers could “avoid the financial and 
nutritional crisis that would result if there 
were an unforeseen and rapid collapse of 
pollinator communities,” they write. ­ Roberta Kwok | 21 December 2012

Source: LeBuhn, G. et al. 2012. Detecting insect 
pollinator declines on regional and global 
scales.Conservation Biology doi: 
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01962.x/abstract>10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01962.x.