[Pollinator] Beespotter

[Ladadams at aol.com]

Saturday, October 27, 2007
Story last updated at 12:56 am on 10/27/2007
Programs Turn Up The Buzz On Bees

By: Lisa Hare
Lisa.hare at yankton.net  
 
Because of the recent honeybee epidemic known as Colony Collapse Disorder 
(CCD), the value of the honeybee's role in the food chain is gaining notoriety.  
The federal government recently released $4 million in funding toward 
research in honeybee health and protection, and now several states are following suit 
with their own programs aimed at educating and involving the public.  
"With the advent of CCD, the need for more awareness of the role and 
importance of pollinators has become apparent," said Jon Lundgren, entomologist at 
South Dakota State University.  
 
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"A decline in the numbers of (bees), the world's most widely distributed 
semi-domesticated insect, doesn't just mean a shortage of honey for toast and 
tea," said May Berenbaum, entomology professor at the University of Illinois and 
committee chair for the National Research Council (NRC) on the status of 
pollinators in North America for the National Academy of Science, in a recent 
opinion editorial.  
In fact, according to the NRC committee, more than 75 percent of the planet's 
flowering plants depend on animal pollinators in order to reproduce. The 
majority of those pollinators are insects, including honeybees.  
In a report released by the NRC committee last October, one of the main 
conclusions on evaluations of apparent pollinator decline was that there simply 
isn't enough data available. In an effort to expand the database, the committee 
recommended involving citizen-scientists in monitoring efforts. Thus, 
Beespotter was born.  
Created by a team of entomologists at the University of Illinois, Beespotter 
is a Web-based partnership between the professional science community and 
citizen-scientists to meet the need for data collection and to provide 
opportunities for the public to learn more about honeybees.  
"The USDA statistics service has kept records of honeybee colonies managed by 
beekeepers since 1947, but the annual survey monitors only colonies used in 
honey production -- colonies used for pollination are not included," Berenbaum 
said. "We need long-term monitoring of feral honeybees along with other 
pollinators if we are to understand the true magnitude of pollination services 
essential for a healthy agricultural economy."  
The goals of Beespotter are to engage citizen-scientists in data collection 
to establish a baseline for monitoring population declines, as well as increase 
public awareness of pollinator diversity and enhance public appreciation of 
pollination as an ecosystem service.  
"Even in a high-tech age when the human capacity to improve upon nature seems 
limitless, there is no satisfactory substitute for the honeybee," Berenbaum 
said.  
The western honeybee is the principal managed pollinator worldwide and is 
responsible for pollinating more than 90 commercially grown crops in North 
America. Given the importance of honeybees' pollination services to agriculture, 
their contribution is estimated to be worth more than $14 billion annually.  
Lundgren said that although South Dakota currently does not have an 
educational program regarding pollinators, he hopes an outreach project similar to 
Beespotter will soon be created.  
"As one of the top honey-producing states in the country, South Dakota should 
be involved in a similar program," he said.  
Bumblebees also appear to be experiencing significant reductions in number, 
according to USDA's Nation Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Of the 49 
species native to North America, many function as complementary pollinators of 
crops such as cucumbers, melons and greenhouse-grown tomatoes. Regional 
declines and even disappearances of some species have been documented. But currently, 
no baseline or long-term monitoring data exists for bumblebees in the U.S.  
The University of Nebraska Department of Entomology, in cooperation with the 
Lincoln public schools' Science Focus Program and Folsom Children's Zoo, has 
created a similar project with Bumble Boosters.  
By involving the public, the goal of the Bumble Boosters is to create a 
community of learners to conduct authentic research on bumblebees -- another 
important pollinator -- in Nebraska.  
A unique aspect of this project is that the participating schools will make 
important contributions to general data on bumble bee distribution, and 
abundance, as well as the effects of excluding pollinators from native habitat and 
cultivated flora. Project results will later be published.  
With approximately one-third of the typical American diet -- primarily the 
healthiest part -- directly or indirectly dependent on pollinators, programs 
like Beespotter and Bumble Boosters hope to enhance public awareness of the 
magnitude of the threat of declining bee populations.  
"The real key to dealing with (declining populations) ? is understanding the 
extent of the problem, which may prove to be more of a challenge than figuring 
out its origins," Berenbaum said.

 
Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
LDA at coevolution.org
_http://www.coevolution.org/_ (http://www.coevolution.org/) 
_http://www.pollinator.org/_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
_http://www.nappc.org/_ (http://www.nappc.org/) 

Join the Pollinator Partnership to save the bees, bats, butterflies and more! 
See _http://www.pollinator.org/_ (http://www.pollinator.org/)  for more 
information.

Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.


Please consider the environment before printing this email.



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