The bee loss epidemic in the shadows
Emily Richter. 04/30/2021
Honey bees have become the subjects of worldwide attention. A simple google search for “save the bees” yields a tidal wave of honey bee-oriented websites. Many websites sell shirts, jewelry and posters encouraging honey bee-focused conservation. Other websites host webinars and programs aimed at teaching people about honey bees, bee keeping and bee gardens. While honeybees play important roles in keeping ecosystems in balance, they are an introduced species everywhere but in Europe. In those places, native bees have been successfully playing the role of chief pollinator for millions of years.
Honey bee numbers have certainly been declining. The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that, in the United States, honey bee populations declined 40% between 2017 and 2018. While these statistics are alarming, honey bees are in no real danger of extinction. Farmers and beekeepers worldwide are dedicated to managing and maintaining the population of honey bees. Native bees do not have this luxury. As a result, many species are in danger of extinction; Discover Magazine notes that some native bees have lost “as much as 96% of their population” in recent years.
According to Discover Magazine, when native bees and honey bees find themselves in the same garden, the results lead to drastic declines. Honey bees typically prefer pollinating the types of plants found in household gardens or yards. When humans move into an area, the resulting landscape benefits honey bees. The introduced species outcompetes native bee species, resulting in a dangerous drop in native bee populations. These population declines can have adverse effects on the native producers of an area, putting the health of ecosystems in danger.
Thousands of species of native bees can be found in North America alone, and nearly a quarter of a million species can be found in the world. The Nature Conservatory reports that the diversity of native bee species results in pollination support for an “incredible diversity of flowering plants”. On the other hand, honey bees only pollinate between 25% and 40% of flower species. The diversity of ecosystems can be threatened by this selective pollination. Maintaining the diversity seen in nature depends upon the well-being of native bees.
Native bees also pollinate flowers more efficiently than honey bees. A 2011 Cornell University study revealed that native bees pollinate flowers two or three times better than honey bees. The Cornell University team says this is because “native bees are mostly pollen collectors”, while honey bees mostly focus on drinking the nectar of flowers. As a result, native bees take a higher amount of pollen from flowers and deposit a higher amount on the next flower they visit.
If native bees are the superior pollinators, why do honey bees get so much attention? While native bees are a part of nature, honey bees participate in commercial agriculture. Humans place a higher monetary value on honey bees because of their ability to be cultivated and manipulated. For example, the California almond crop depends entirely on staggering numbers of honey bees, transported by beekeepers from all over North America. Without these honey bees, there would be a severe shortage of almonds and almond products. The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that 15 billion dollars of crops would be lost if honey bees suddenly disappeared.
However, these estimates could be very wrong. A spokesperson for the groundbreaking 2011 Cornell University study argues that “the role of native bees in crop pollination has been largely unappreciated”. He says that, if honey bee populations decline, native bee populations may be able to pick up the agricultural slack. Since native bees are more effective pollinators than honey bees, this could potentially be advantageous to the agricultural industry.
The best way to ensure that the future has healthy ecosystems and an abundant variety of agriculture is to focus on conserving native bees. Unfortunately, the public does not recognize the decline of native bees as a pressing issue. A 2019 National Parks and Recreation Society survey revealed that 95% of people in the United States believe that honey bee protection is an issue of high concern. If honey bees continue to bask in the conservation spotlight, hundreds of native bee species will likely go extinct.
In 2016, PBS announced to the public that, for the first time, seven different native bee species had been added to the endangered species list. This caused the seven species, all native Hawaiian yellow-faced wasp-like bees, to receive federal protection. Since then, more bee species have been added to the list as well, allowing them a fighting chance for survival.
Another positive sign for native bee populations is the skyrocketing popularity of native plant gardens. In the last decade, many homeowners and gardeners have taken part in the trend, which adds some native flair to urban areas. Native plant gardens provide native bees with their favorite host plants. Since honey bee populations often decimate native bee populations due to the availability of gardens, native plant gardens help to level the playing field between native bees and honey bees.
The native bee crisis gets very little attention, but if extinction begins to spread across native bee populations, it could quickly cause an environmental crisis, and possibly an agricultural crisis. Protecting bees does not only ensure that future generations have over twenty thousand native bee species to marvel at; it also ensures humanity’s continued survival.
Cover Photo: Emily Richter
