Competitive Interactions between Apis and Bombus Essay

Bee decline is an increasing issue in the United states of America. An article written by the University of Vermont reveals a map of over 139 troubled zones for the population of bees and why they might be endangered. The University of Vermont is a well-respected establishment when it comes to research and Agriculture.

What you may not know is that honeybees play a huge roll in America’s agriculture, whether it is pollinating alfalfa hay to feed your horse or pollinating that apple you eat every morning for breakfast. Honeybees pollinate about one-third of crops species in the U.S. (Vanishing Bees, 2008). Bees pollinate a lot more than you would think a few more examples are almonds, avocadoes, cucumbers and peanuts.

Thesis: Without a change in policy and practice, honeybees may disappear, causing humans a dilemma that is much bigger than many understand.

Long ago in the 1950s, a special type of killer bee called the Africanized honey bee was imported by farmers to Brazil. Local farmers created the idea of crossbreeding the new Africanised honey bee with the local population of honeybees and order to increase the honey population. This in effect, would increase the biodiversity in many areas such as South America and the Southern part of the U.S. However, in 1957, twenty-six Afrikan Queens Bees and European worker bees escaped from an experimental laboratory in Sãn Paulo. After escaping, many Africanized bees formed hybrids with European honey bees. Many became adapted to the environment and spread spreading throughout South America, South Africa and Mexico, eventually creating an ecological

The rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) is an essential pollinator for the environment that is currently not on the endangered or threatened species list. The rusty patched bumble bee is bigger and stronger than the honeybee and plays an important role in the production of crops, such as cranberries, blueberries, and tomatoes. As Doug Taron of the Chicago Academy of Sciences points out, “No bees. No fruit.” Historically, this species was found in 29 states and 2 Canadian provinces. The rusty patched bumble bee population saw a decline in population and distribution in the late 1990s. The bees’ population has declined by 91%. The relative abundance of the species has declined from 8% to 1%, and only 5% of the historical locations are currently

Invasive species have a variety of impacts, many of which are unpredictable. The Africanized honey bee (also known as the “killer bee” in the media community or apis mellifera scutellata among scientists) provides an excellent case study of how even an intentionally introduced invasive species can become uncontrollable and problematic.

Honeybees are considered a keystone species because of the extremely important role they play in supporting and pollinating a large variety of ecosystems. Human beings are also reliant on the services that honeybees provide, and often use them in commercial greenhouses and orchards to ensure proper pollination. Although much research has been done to try and discover the cause of the dying bees, no single factor has been determined. However, if the problem remains unsolved, it could lead to disastrous economic an ecological changes.

Bees are credited to producing a monumental amount of food for humans, and without them, our variety of food choices would be much smaller. Bees are also key aspects in ecosystems as one of the most important mutually beneficial species in the world. A symbiotic relationship is a relationship in nature in which two species interact and each get something that will benefit both parties from each other. Bees are prime examples of this as they help in the growth of flowering plants everywhere, states Tucker. The New Agriculturist explains that the plants assisted by bees are source to many other organisms, so the entire ecosystem is in bloom

When most people hear even the slightest mention of the Honeybee, a tinge of panic immediately races through their heart. The Honeybee lives in infamy as one of the peskiest creatures on the planet. With memories of painful stings looming in the back of the mind, it can be a challenge to find sympathy for the planet’s tiniest, yet mightiest insect. The Honeybee population is dying at an alarming rate, an issue that is certainly not new, but has often been ignored or simply forgotten. Honeybees spend their lives furiously working to pollinate hundreds of plants, supplying the planet with a plethora of earth-grown delicacies, all the while supporting a diverse ecosystem.

Honeybees play a significant role in helping pollinate many different crops and flowers. As honeybees gather pollen and nectar for their survival, they pollinate crops of fruits and vegetables. “Some crops, including blueberries and cherries, are 90-percent dependent on honey bee pollination; one crop, almonds, depends entirely on the honey bee for pollination at bloom time” (KAUFFELD). According to facts listed by the Almond Board of California, “one-third of global food production volume relies on pollinators, to some degree” (@almonds, Bee).

Opossums may be one of the most overlooked marsupials among the human race, but bees are one of the most stigma-surrounded insects. Bees pollinate plants; this statement sounds simple but holds the key to nearly every ecosystem and lifestyle there is. It is estimated by the USDA that bees pollinate over one-sixth of the United States’ flowering plants and over 400 species of agricultural plants (New Agriculturist 1). Flowering plants are essential to the oxygen cycle: from simple lavender to the North American Tupelo Tree (Hadley 1).The proper and healthy pollination of plants like these would be absolutely impossible with honeybees and bumblebees, they are simply attracted to their unique pollens, as a means of energy, and spread them wherever

Introduction of non-native species caused decline in native species’ population.Non-native species compete with native bees for nectars and pollens. (Great Pollinator Project, GPP)

Bee decline is a sustainability issue due to it affecting environmental, economical and socio-cultural concepts. The decline in bees affects the environment due to the need for interdependence. All species play a role in the ecosystem; therefore damage in one area of the system through the decline of the bees causes change to other areas (Littledyke, 2009). This is due to flowering plants requiring pollination. Without bees providing pollination, the plants cannot produce food crops and reproduce to form other plants, causing decreases in the biodiversity of plant species (The University of Waikato, 2012). This not only affects biodiversity of plants, but also means other animal life is affected as food

The action of bumblebees is firmly occasional in many parts of their circulations. In the British Isles, the main surviving individuals in the middle of November and March are typically queen in hibernation. In this state they are extremely impervious to frosty', so that their dissemination is not anticipated that would be influenced by winter temperatures inside of the extent regularly experienced in Britain. The absence of relationship between distribution limits and January mean isotherms , which for the most part keep running from north to south northern Europe, could in this way have been foreseen. The length of the season which bumblebees can forage and their settlements create could exhibit a limitation on their distribution (Williams ,2006). Lundberg concluded that foraging and large stops when it rains and that the quantity of foragers is unequivocally impacted by temperature. Wind speed and light intensity affect foraging when they achieve compelling levels. There is an inverse relationship between the foraging and rain, bumblebee activity in the search for food decreased when the rain increase . In addition , insecticides affect the distribution of the bee population , leading to death among species.

Saéz, Sabatino, and Aizen, wrote “"Interactive Effects of Large- and Small-Scale Sources of Feral Honey-Bees for Sunflower in the Argentine Pampas” article to explain what is a pollinator and why should we care about the ultimate pollinator in the world: the honey bee. A pollinator is an animal that pollinates crops in a natural or man-made habitat, most flowering plant life is dependent on their ability to attract these pollinators. Without pollinators, there are many flowering species of plants that would not be able to populate at all. Honey bees are the best pollinator in the natural wild, due to their hive mechanics and the body of a honey bee itself. The rest of the article is about an experiment that test the difference between small