Science with Heen - Colony Collapse Disorder

Colony Collapse Disorder

“If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man will have no more than four years to live...”

That’s a fairly famous quote attributed to Einstein. It’s likely that he didn’t actually state it - lots of statements have been attributed to him over the years. It does, however, get one thinking about honey bees and their importance, especially in light of what has come to be called colony collapse disorder, CCD.

First up, are little honey bees really important in the grand scheme of things? In a word, yes. Very important, in fact.

Honey bees are a keystone species, meaning that there are many other organisms whose survival depends on that of the bees. Therefore, bees can be used as an indicator of the health of the earth. As bee populations decline, it can be viewed as an indication that the earth is in a fragile state and not in equilibrium. If bees go extinct, other species dependent on them will be affected and as a worst case scenario we have ecological collapse.

Honey bees fertilise plants by landing on them to get food for themselves, then flying to the next plant to get more food, and so on. In doing so the bee transports pollen from plant to plant, thereby pollinating the plants. Without this essential pollination occurring, plants would start to die out and food sources for many other organisms would grow thin.

Whole Foods Market recently pulled all of the produce dependent on pollinators from the shelves of one of their stores in America. This amounted to 237 items being removed - that’s 52 % of the normal product displays.

Which brings us to colony collapse disorder, CCD. Over the last 15 years or so, numbers of honey bees have been dropping dramatically. It was first noticed in North America but then also in Europe. According to the British Beekeeper’s Association, Europe’s last winter saw the decline of more than a third of bee colonies in England. American bee populations dropped by similar amounts.

Nobody knows exactly why the bee populations have dropped so markedly. Possibly due to pesticides being used. Possibly due to invasions of other organisms. Possibly due to the practice of feeding bees corn syrup. Possibly due to changing environmental conditions brought about by climate change. We just don’t know.

But here’s the thing - the bees are disappearing, but there aren’t dead little bees all over the place. Now isn’t that a good storyline for an episode of the Twilight Zone? Or for those who aren’t old enough to remember the show, it’s a good little spooky point to put in the Mark Wahlberg movie The Happening.

So what’s happening to the bees? We don’t know. How drastic will the long-term effects be? We don’t know. What we do know is it’s sure to have an impact on the 30 billion dollar crop industry.

In April 2013 Europe instituted a ban on a class of pesticides believed to be harmful to bees. In America, researchers at Washington State University have proposed a bee sperm bank to try and breed hardier colonies.

No, we don’t know what’s happening. Yes, we’re trying to sort it out. This is where science comes in.

Colony Collapse Disorder

Go Science!!!