NATURE’S POLLINATORS ARE DISAPPEARING AND HERE’S WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU!
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aybe you could tolerate a world without honey. But what if you had to go without apples, strawberries, avocados, almonds and coffee, too? It’s difficult to believe that the work of a creature as inconspicuous as a bee could be responsible for one third of everything we eat. However, the truth is that without bees, so many of the crops we enjoy and rely on would cease to exist or be so incredibly cost prohibitive that no one, save the wealthiest, could afford to eat them. Bees perform a task that is essential to the success of agriculture: pollination. There are hundreds of bee species globally, and most of them provide pollination services. The dominant pollinator, however, across bees and all animals is the common honeybee (or Apis mellif-
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HOOD MAGA ZINE
era). Honeybees collect pollen and nectar as food for the entire colony, and as they do so, they unknowingly transfer pollen from one flower to another, fertilizing the plant, which then produces the food we love. The problem is honeybees are disappearing globally at an alarming rate due to pesticides, parasites, disease and habitat loss. First identified in 2006, this trend has the agriculture industry, as well as commercial beekeepers, worried. Consumers, too, have something to lose if nature’s most valuable pollinators vanish and likewise, we all have a responsibility to do what we can to ensure their survival. At Hood, April Boulton, Ph.D., an insect ecologist by training, has been examining some of the factors responsible for declining bees. Her research—from examining the role native flower borders play in attracting more bees, to investigating pesticide alternatives—is helping to increase crop yields and save the bees.
Boulton was awarded a research grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2014 to 2016 to investigate natural control measures for small-hive beetles, a pest of the honeybee. This research showed that there are some naturally occurring compounds with low toxicity levels that could reduce the beetle threat to honeybees. This work involved graduate and undergraduate researchers—some of whom were supported by two consecutive Hood Summer Research Institute grants. Her research also
