Pollination Paper

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,

Identify features of flowers of native species of angiosperms that may be adaptations for wind, insect, bird and mammal pollination.

UCSB Science Line. (2015). Flowers at night?. [online] Available at: http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=3098 [Accessed 10 Mar. 2017].

Honey bees may account for more than half of insects using the flowers of many plant species, meaning honey bees could remove a large share of the floral resources from Australian plants (and so compete with native flower-visiting fauna). European honey bees remove up to 80% of floral resources produced from Australian native plants.

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.

Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) are an unbranched perennial plant that are primarily located in middle and eastern areas of North America. Wingstem grow in habitats that receive large amounts of sun and areas that are shaded. Wingstem thrive in areas with moist conditions, and receive periodic rainfall. Based on our knowledge of the chemical processes in plants, the Wingstem located in the sunlit areas will have greater reproduction, resulting in increased flowering rather than those in shaded locations. To test our hypothesis, we collected Wingstem in various habitats (sun and shaded). We then calculated the number of flowers, followed by weighing the total vegetation. The results demonstrate a significant difference between the number

Although it is difficult to directly exemplify the impact of invasive European honeybees on native bumblebees through floral resources, many studies prove there is an indirect relationship between the species concerning overlapping of their ecological niche (Thomson 2004). Diane Thomson conducted an experiment measuring the impacts of the invasive honeybee on the native bumblebee through competition for nectar and pollen resources. Each summer from 1998 through 2000, two to three Apis colonies (each consisting of 10,000-15,000 workers) were introduced into three sites from early June to early September (Thomson 2004). Each Apis colony was placed 2 km apart. For the native bumblebees, B. occidentalis colonies were located at 10 m, 500 m, and 1000 m away from each site. Since there are three distances, and three different sites, there were nine B. occidentalis colonies in total. The B. occidentalis species was placed in the same location every year; however, the distance treatment was altered (Thomson 2004). To reduce the factors that may alter the results, laboratory-reared colonies were used to minimize any differences in the Bombus colonies and weighed to keep the amount consistent (Thomson 2004). Overall, Thomson’s experiment exemplified the direct effects of the invasive Apis species on reproductive success and foraging activity of the native Bombus.

Common soil invertebrates include arthropods and nematodes. These soil invertebrates provide major ecosystem services. For example, ants, dung beetles, ground beetles, earthworms, and slugs aid in seed dispersal, which is important because seed dispersal is known to affect food production and nutrient recycling as well as decomposition rates. Bees, butterflies, moths, and ants aid in pollination. These invertebrates are very important because about three-fourths of all plants are pollinator dependent and insects tend to provide most of the animal pollination globally. Without pollinators plant species would be more susceptible to extinction. In agricultural systems, invertebrate pollinators are responsible for the successful production of vegetables and fruits that maintain livestock production. Nematodes, annelids, and arthropods aid in decomposition (Prather et al., 2012)

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

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.

Although pollinators help produce food, food isn't the only thing, but also plants used to create medicines and some beverages need pollination to occur. Unfortunately, one of the world’s most successful pollinating animals are endangered or at risk, and there are necessary changes that must occur in order to save them.

So next you think of bees or hummingbirds just know that those animals are the ones that make this world better. Plant pollinators are amazing to this world and help every plant out there.. But

Vegetables do not have the most attractive flowers to attract birds, bees and butterflies. To make sure that these pollinators find your vegetable plants, have flowers with high nectar content planted along side flowering vegetables. This will attract more pollinators that will pollinate both the flowers and the vegetables in your backyard garden. Flowers that have shades of yellow, blue or white such as sunflowers, cosmos and zinnias are ideal for attracting pollinators.