Bee decline threatens our

dinner  and the countryside

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/03/eabees103.xml&page=1

Bees are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. This could not only have a devastating impact on our food supplies, but could also turn our brightly-coloured meadows into grey hinterlands. Jimmy Lee Shreeve reports   Threatened: More and more bees are disappearing “This year, right now, it feels very bleak,” said Ben Darvill, a conservation researcher at the University of Stirling and co-founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. He was talking about the serious decline in bees over recent years, which is now coming to a head, what with large and unprecedented losses of bees in Europe, the US and other parts of the world. “It’s urgent and we need to do something about it now,” he continued. “But all too often people notice the importance of something when it’s not there - when it’s too late.” Before speaking to Darvill I’d been sitting outside on my homemade garden bench having an early lunch, bees buzzing merrily all around me. What with its long grasses and wildflowers my garden is something of a haven for bees and other insects. If I’m honest they benefit from my laziness. I rarely mow the lawns and allow weeds and whatever seeds the birds and breeze bring in to grow as nature intended - with wild abandon. But as Darvill told me about the plight of our bees I realised with a shudder that many of the things we take for granted - the colourful blazes of wildflowers in our meadows, even much of the food on our plates - would not be around if it wasn’t for them. It’s easy to forget that bees don’t just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the flowering crops we rely on for food. Among them: apples, nuts, pears, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, tomatoes, sunflowers and cucumbers. Along with citrus fruit, peaches, kiwis, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries and melons. Crops like oilseed rape (increasingly used in biofuels), alfalfa, peas, runner beans and broadbeans also rely on visits by bees and other pollinating insects to improve the quality and quantity of fruits and seeds produced. It’s hard to believe that one small creature can be so important to our food supply. But as Brian Latham, chair of the Leeds Beekeepers Association, points out: we’ve become almost terminally disconnected from the natural world we live in and how it feeds us. “We get our food from supermarkets and think little more about it,” he says. “Very few of us are as aware as our grandparents were of the connection between what’s on our dinner plates and the intricate workings of nature.” Albert Einstein was well aware of this connection. When it came to bees, he put it in no uncertain terms: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” Chillingly, more and more bees are disappearing off the face of the Earth. In some areas of the UK honeybee numbers have dropped by as much as 80 per cent, while bumblebees across the country have declined by 60 per cent since 1970. In both cases this is largely due to loss of wild habitats, intensive farming and overuse of pesticides and herbicides. The simple truth is that bees need flowers, and there are very few flowers to be found in the farmed countryside these days. In the USA, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) - where whole colonies disappear or die - has caused a devastating loss of honeybees. Since it broke out last autumn, declines of between 30 per cent and 90 per cent of honeybee populations in at least 27 states have been recorded. There have also been reports of CCD in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. One beekeeper in London found over half of his hives mysteriously abandoned, leading many to speculate that CCD has broken out here. But the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is adamant it is not occurring in Britain. Echoing the concerns of beekeepers across the country, Tim Lovett, chairman of the British Beekeepers Association, warns that it would be “foolhardy in the extreme” for the government to ignore the possible emergence of CCD in Britain.

Currently scientists are stumped as to the cause of CCD. Various theories have been put forward - from a parasite like the Varroa mite (which wreaked havoc on bee populations through the 1990s) to the impulses from mobile phones scrambling bee signals. But none have yet stuck.

Even if CCD hasn’t arrived in Britain, the fact is, our bees are under a severe enough threat as it is. Three of the UK’s 25 species of bumblebee, for example, are already extinct. If something isn’t done soon, say researchers, more will suffer the same fate.

And in a study last year, scientists examined hundreds of wildflower sites in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands. They found the diversity of bees in 80 per cent of the sites had markedly dropped over the past 25 years. The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Science, also noted that the wildflowers which rely on specialist species of bees for pollination had also declined - suggesting that the bees and wildflowers were in a vicious cycle of decline.

“We were shocked by the decline in plants as well as bees,” says Dr Koos Biesmeijer from the University of Leeds, lead author of the study. “If the pattern is replicated elsewhere, the pollination services we take for granted could be at risk, and with it the future of the plants we enjoy in the countryside.”

Whatever the cause, adds Biesmeijer, the study raises the worrying possibility that declines in some species could trigger a “cascade of local extinctions amongst associated species”. In other words, the countryside as we know it could change beyond recognition - and all because we’ve taken our bees for granted.

“Without bees pollinating wildflowers, the wildflowers won’t set any seeds,” Darvill told me. “So over a period of years the countryside would shift from being dominated by flowering plants to being dominated by plants that don’t require insect pollination.”

The result? We would see a lot less colour and variety. Our meadows, for example, would be made up of grasses rather than an abundance of brightly coloured wildflowers. “I think the general public would be really struck by that,” said Darvill.

During his research earlier this year, Darvill got a chilling preview of what could happen to our food supplies if the bee decline worsens. “Because of the mild winter the oil seed rape, peas and broad beans flowered a lot earlier than usual,” he said.

“There were very few bees around at that stage - it was even too early for some queen bees. The colonies just hadn’t got going.”

When he returned to the fields later in the year he noticed that the flowers had dropped off without producing seed pods, as they would normally do. “They hadn’t been pollinated,” said Darvill, “and that gives us an insight into the state of affairs that could result if the decline in bees continues. You’re going to have decreasing yields and more and more pea pods that have only got one pea in them.”

Beekeepers and researchers alike are now talking about the “pollination crisis”. Yet the government doesn’t seem to recognise the potential consequences that could result from any further decline in our bees.

The economic contribution bees make to agriculture and horticulture in the UK is estimated to be £1 billion per year (globally it’s thought to be between £20 billion and £50 billion). But Defra has slashed research budgets, resulting in world-class experts on bees being laid off from UK research institutes.

In June, the British Beekeepers Association set up an emergency meeting slamming Defra over the “paltry” £180,000 currently being allocated to bee research. John Howat, secretary of the Bee Farmers’ Association, was quoted as saying: “Less than one percent of the hives’ value to the economy is being spent on research and development. The government seems totally oblivious to the consequences of honeybees being wiped out.”

Even more worryingly, this summer’s floods and torrential rains could have made the bees’ plight far worse. “A year like this will have a big effect - particularly on bumblebee populations,” said Darvill.

“Bumblebees largely nest underground, so you can imagine the terrible effect the flooding and rains have had on their colonies. The fact is, a series of bad summers like this one could easily lead to further national extinctions.”