Importance Of Plant Pollination

In “Why Bees Are Disappearing,” Marla Spivak, an American entomologist, sheds light on the importance of bees in the pollination process as well as the decline in bee population. Spivak claims that “bees are the most important pollinators” because over one third of crop production across the world depends on bee pollination. However, bee populations have decreased since the end of World War II due to “multiple, interacting causes of death.” These causes are monocultures, pesticides, diseases, and flowerless landscapes, and they all pose a threat to plant diversity and food production. In order to prevent significant consequences and reverse impacts already made, Spivak encourages the audience to plant bee-friendly flowers without pesticide contamination so that bees, and therefore people, have access to better nutrition.

Many plants rely heavily on bees as their main pollinator to reproduce. The main fear is that even though many flowers also rely on mammals and other insects to assist in the pollination process, bees are the biggest and most vital source of this life cycle. As the bees disappear the reproduction process of many plants does not happen as efficiently thus less plants are produced, this

Furthermore bees specifically are particularly efficient with it being estimated that they are the sole pollinators for 50% of the approximate 80% of flowering plants which rely on insects for pollination (Bradbear, 2009). Their efficiency is further illustrated by the fact that a single colony containing 25,000 forager bees is able to pollinate 250 million flowers per day (Bradbear, 2009). As a result of this it can be seen that bees are hugely important as pollinators with many species of flower being completely dependent on them. Furthermore, the importance of bees extends beyond ecological diversity; certain types of bees are hugely important economically. In addition to pollinating a large variety of fruit and vegetables, bees produce Honey; together this results in them having an estimated value of service of £200m a year in the UK (National Audit Office (NAO), 2009). Overall it can be seen that bees are of significant importance that any decrease in population should be treated with concern, as a result of this a large quantity of research has been conducted into identifying possible

In this chapter the author stresses the importance of creatures that pollinate such as insects, birds,

Pollination is essentially plant reproduction - without help from animal pollinators, our everyday food supply would look much different

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.

Bees pollinating crops produce every third mouthful of food we eat. Bees contribute to thirty- five Percent of global food production, 87 of the leading 115 food crops are dependent on animal pollinators, including bees. (The United States White House, 2014). Without bees pollinating plants, there would not be very many fruits or vegetables to eat, Bees transfer pollen between the male and female parts, allowing plants to grow seeds and fruit. In the last decade scientist and beekeepers have observed remarkable decline of bees, in the US alone 30% of the national bee population has disappeared and nearly a third of all bee colonies in the U.S. have

These species include bees, such as the western honey bee, along with flies, beetles, moths, and butterflies. Pollination, as far as honey bees are concerned, is a process where honey bees legs get coated in pollen which they transfer from flower to flower to fertilize the plant. Plants rely on pollinators to grow and produce offspring. Without pollination, many plants would die off and would not be around the next growing season. Pollination is the sole reason the U.S. has as many fruits, vegetables, and nuts that it does. The western honey bee is one of the many important pollinators that have become a huge part of North American agriculture, but they might not be necessary.

Bees are important pollinators of many plants in the ecosystem (2). Recently, the decline in the number of bees in North America and Europe has shifted the research focus of many ecologists towards pesticide use (2). The impacts of pesticides on bees and other pollinators can have a major influence on honey production and biodiversity.

Bees have existed for about 100 million years, and they have played an important role in the pollination of plants. A long time ago, pollination was crucial to the balance of the food chain. Without it there would have been no food for the herbivores and they would have become extinct; so no food for the meat eaters. They have been doing their job for millions of years, but recently scientists have observed problems within the colonies which could have negative effects with in our ecosystem.

“Bees need food (nectar, pollen) provided by insect-pollinated plants in order to reproduce and produce more bees” (Corbet, Williams, & Osborne, 1991, p 2). By creating hives and environments that are conducive to bee sustainment, it is possible that strides can be to reverse the downward trend in populations. This is critical as one study showed. It stated that the loss of bees was a domino effect to other species. It stated, “If bee pollinated flowers

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).

Urbanization removes the habitats for pollinators. Ground-nesting pollinators have limited habitat in the cities or areas covered by concrete.

Why we need the bees; The bees pollinate most the plants to produce fruits, seeds, and nuts. Like other bees, rusty patched bumblebees important crops for us to eat, such as tomatoes, cranberries and peppers.

Bees aren 't the only insect pollinators in the world, but they are by far the most widespread ones. Despite this, non-bee insect pollinators have a contributing factor to the success of pollination that the bees themselves don 't. There have been studies on the success of the pollination and 'seeding ' of flowers and plants. Bees have a fairly average success rate, focusing more on spreading the pollination farther afield than the success of the 'seeding '. Non-bee insects tend to stay in a small ranged area that allows them to visit the same flowers more often, thus increasing the success of their visits.