Page 28 - atoday

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SCIENCETuesday 1 March 2016
UN science report warns of fewer bees, other pollinators
SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Many species of wild bees,
butterflies and other critters
that pollinate plants are
shrinking toward extinction,
and the world needs to do
something about it before
our food supply suffers, a
new United Nations scien-
tific mega-report warns.
The 20,000 or so species of
pollinators are key to hun-
dreds of billions of dollars’
worth of crops each year
— from fruits and vegeta-
bles to coffee and choco-
late. Yet 2 out of 5 species
of invertebrate pollinators,
such as bees and butter-
flies, are on the path to-
ward extinction, said the
first-of-its-kind report. Pol- up with an assessment of
linators with backbones,
such as hummingbirds and
bats, are only slightly better an effort similar to what the
off, with 1 in 6 species fac-
ing extinction.
“We are in a period of de-
cline and there are going
to be increasing conse-
quences,” said report lead
author Simon Potts, direc-
tor of the Centre for Agri-
Environmental Research
at the University of Read-
ing in England. And it’s not
just honeybees. In some
aspects they’re doing bet-
ter than many of their wild
counterparts, like the bum-
blebee, despite dramatic
long-term declines in the
United States and a mys-
terious disorder that has
waned.
The trouble is the report
can’t point to a single vil-
In this July 8, 2015 file photo a bumblebee gathers nectar on a
wildflower in Appleton, Maine.
lain. Among the culprits: the
way farming has changed
so there’s not enough di-
versity and wild flowers for
pollinators to use as food;
pesticide use, including a
controversial one, neonic-
otinoid, that attacks the
nervous system; habitat loss
to cities; disease, parasites
and pathogens; and glob-
al warming.
The report is the result of
more than two years of
work by scientists across
the globe who got togeth-
er under several different
U.N. agencies to come
Earth’s biodiversity, start-
ing with the pollinators. It’s global warming, the solu-
United Nations has done
with global warming, put-
ting together an encyclo-
pedic report to tell world
leaders what’s happening
scientific panel. The solu- that said the widely used
tions offered mostly involve insecticide neonicotinoid
changing the way land reduces wild bees’ chanc-
Associated Press and farming is managed. es for survival and repro-
“There are relatively sim- duction, but the evidence
and give them options for ple, relatively inexpensive of effects on honeybees is
what can be done. mechanisms for turning conflicting.
The report, which draws the trend around for na- In a statement, Christian
from many scientific studies tive pollinators,” said David Maus, global pollinator
but no new research, was Inouye of the University of safety manager for Bay-
approved by a congress of Maryland, a co-author of er, which makes neonic-
124 nations meeting in Kua- a couple chapters in the otinoids, said: “The report
la Lumpur on Friday. report. confirms the overwhelm-
“The variety and multiplicity One of the biggest prob- ing majority of the scientific
of threats to pollinators and lems, especially in the opinion regarding pollina-
pollination generate risks United States, is that giant tor health — that this is a
to people and livelihoods,” swaths of farmland are complex issue affected by
the report stated. “These devoted to just one crop, many factors. Protecting
risks are largely driven by and wildflowers are disap- pollinators and providing
changes in land cover and pearing, Potts and others a growing population with
agricultural management said. Wild pollinators espe- safe, abundant food will re-
systems, including pesti- cially do well on grasslands, quire collaboration.”
cide use.” which are usually more Potts said global warming
But these are problems that than just grass, and 97 per- is “very clearly a real fu-
can be fixed, and unlike cent of Europe’s grasslands ture risk” because pollina-
have disappeared since tors and their plants may
tions don’t require coun- World War II, Potts said. not be at the same place
tries to agree on global ac- England now pays farm- at the same time. England
tion — they can act locally, ers to plant wildflowers has seen one-quarter of its
said Robert Watson, a top for bees in hedge rows, bumblebee species threat-
British ecological scientist Watson said. There are ened, and those are the
and vice chairman of the both general and specific type of bees most sensitive
problems with some pes- to climate change, he said.
ticide use, according to England has lost two spe-
the report. “Pesticides, par- cies of wild bumblebees to
ticularly insecticides, have extinction and the U.S. has
been demonstrated to lost one, Inouye said.
have a broad range of le- The story of honeybees is a
thal and sub-lethal effects bit mixed. Globally over the
on pollinators in controlled last 50 years, the number of
experimental conditions,” managed honeybee hives
the report said. But it noted — ones where humans
more study is needed on keep them either as a hob-
the effects on pollinators in byists or as professional pol-
the wild. Herbicides kill off linators — has increased,
weeds, which are useful for but it has dropped in North
wild pollinators, the report America and Europe,
added. The report high- where there is the most
lighted recent research data, the report said.q