Perhaps you remember to highlight a photo please click itIf you have been a regular reader of my weekly posts, you may remember, twelve months ago, this photo of a courier handing me, at my front door, a box of bumblebees. ¹
New StatusBumblebees used to be unnoticed, or alternatively unwanted. Some years ago Marion found a working bumblebee nest in our garden and exterminated it. She thought bumblebees were dangerous pests to be destroyed. Now we want them! Perceptions changePerceptions have changed – not just Marion's but those of the science community. Now scientists are worried. Pollinators are getting scarce. Pollinators are vital. Under the frightening heading: 'Bumblebees are going extinct in a time of climate chaos,' here are three paragraphs from writer Douglas Main, in The National Geographic, February 2020. Speaking of these creatures he says: 'But their numbers are dropping. New research using a massive dataset found that the insects are far less common than they used to be; in North America, you are nearly 50 percent less likely to see a bumblebee in any given area than you were prior to 1974.' 'In a new paper published this week in the journal Science, researchers used a complex modeling process to suggest that their decline is driven in large part by climate change.' 'Specifically, the scientists found that in areas that have become hotter in the last generation, or have experienced more extreme temperature swings, bumblebees are less abundant. In Europe, they are 17 percent less plentiful than they were in the early 20th century. The scientists examined the abundance of 66 species across the two continents.' ² The Science paper is worth a look and it's referenced at the foot of this post. Now a new spring
Not just gardens
HopePerhaps as individuals, government and private research agencies and food growers of all kinds become more and more aware, then bumble bees will become a mainstay of pollination and therefore of food production. Growth in areas of suitable habitat, will help too. And in our garden I hope I'll see bumble bees at work for many years to come. □ John McInnes Friday 23 October 2020 References: to open a link click red text ¹ The relevant post was 29 November 2019. ² The National Geographic – Bumblebees going extinct in climate chaos Science 7 February 2020 – Bumblebees in decline across continents NZ Plant and Food Research: nest boxes – pollination experiments pictorial site – worth looking at ##########
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