SciTech

Stop, I Can't Smell The Flowers.

MayorBob.

Posted to SciTech on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 05:42:14 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

Currently, one of the big scientific mysteries is the Honeybee Holocaust. Okay, that was hyperbolic. But, the truth of the matter is that honeybees have been disappearing without explanation for sometime. This is a mystery which could turn into a crisis because of the impact of the honeybee on our food supply. While a group of scientists don't claim to have the complete answer to the mystery, they do offer what might be a significant piece of the puzzle. Put very simply, bees are dying off because they can't smell the flowers.

The culprit laying at the foot of this inability of bees to smell flowers is pollution. At least, that's the key finding of the the study (abstract only). The study contends that scent molecules, created by the flowers, bond with pollutants such as ozone, destroying their natural aromas. According to Jose Fuentes, one of the study team:

"The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters [3,300 to 4,000 feet]; but in today's polluted environment downwind of major cities, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters [650 to 980 feet]."
Essentially, that extra amount of travel the bees must do to find sources of pollen makes it difficult for bees to sustain their populations. The honeybee die-off hasn't happened overnight. For at least the past four years, federal agencies like the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been aware of dwindling bee populations here in the US and throughout Europe. The USDA has been investigating the die-off, looking at suspects like beetles and mites (pdf doc) as causes of the die off. But, it wasn't believed that the die-off was caused by just one factor. Previously the logic went that it may have been caused by two main factors: "something weakening the honeybee and another killing it." But, now scientists like the USDA's Jeff Pettis might have a third factor - inability to locate pollen producing flowers. The problem, as Pettis pointed out last year, "is that everyone wants a simple answer ... and it may not be a simple answer."

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Tags: edited by Port1080, written by MayorBob, honeybees, food, pollution, hive collapse (all tags)
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3

Re: Stop, I Can't Smell The Flowers.

Lou.

Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 08:19:14 PM EST

5.00 (funny, funny)

We must clean the air Bee-fore we kill ourselves.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

4

^ 3

We must develop super bees.

MayorBob.

Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 10:34:23 PM EST

5.00

We must genetically breed bees who are resistant to mites and beetles with super sniffers so that they can smell flowers from outer space.  Then when they have developed super intelligence and have figured out that man has done all this to insure the non-stop supply of Honey Bunches of Nuts cereal ... er, I mean what could go wrong.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

10

when science ignores reality

wetkarma.

Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 01:35:54 AM EST

5.00 (interesting)

  1. Were this true, bee populations upwind of major cities should be just fine rather than a widespread decline.

  2. Ozone rises to the stratosphere and hangs out there -- while I'm sure bees are hard workers, I think they tend to hang out closer to tree level.

  3. The pollution in major cities like california have been declining year over year since the 80s as cars/emitters reduce the level of their emissions.

Inability to local pollen might indeed be a problem for the bees -- but this might more reasonably be caused by a variety of factors separate from pollution.

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.

11

^ 10

Don't count out pollution yet

Lou.

Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 11:36:26 AM EST

5.00 (informative)

Don't forget, these are all still  theories.  As such they will be tested and the ones that don't work will be tossed out.  Of course, there are some theories that can be tossed out right away such as alien intervention and fundamentalist Christians praying that a bee population crash will bring about the apocalypse.

You put forth some good ideas but as good as they are they still don't rule out pollutions.

  1. Even colonies upwind of major cities are still downwind from something else.  Here in Maine, we're not downwind from any major city...yet pollution from coal fired plants in the midwest still fuck with us.  Pollution can travel a long way.  Do bees drink water?  They must.  Didn't we just have a discussion about how all kinds of human medicines wind up in the water supply?  While the amounts in the water might not be enough to affect humans, who knows what it could have on smaller organisms.

  2. Ozone doesn't always waft up to the sky...at least not right away.  It seemed that we had a lot of ozone alerts during hot summer days last year.   If the conditions are right, ozone hangs around the ground and people are encourage to stay indoors and not exert themselves.  Since bees don't have access to radio or t.v., they might miss these warnings.

  3. Granted, pollutions levels in general have decreased in California.  That still doesn't mean that specific kinds of pollutants haven't increased.  And who know...maybe the car exhaust contained chemical A that interacted with chemical B.  Reducing exhaust emissions might have removed A and left B free to fuck with the bees.

A sticking point for me in the article is how Fuentes limited the pollution effect to just downwind of cities...given how pollution moves all over the place, this is a severely limiting aspect of the pollution hypothesis.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

12

^ 11

Re: Don't count out pollution yet

Shy Elf.

Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 03:33:50 PM EST

5.00 (informative)

  1. Despite the EPA trying to regulate it on a metropolis by metropolis basis, tropospheric ozone is is regional in scale.  This means that most of the country has high ozone levels in the summer.  Low levels in the desert east of California are largely due to the unusual combination of persistent temperature inversions and mountains.

  2.  Tropospheric ozone is formed in the troposphere and is destroyed there.  Stratospheric ozone is formed in the stratosphere and is destroyed there.  There is no significant ozone exchange or "rising".

  3.  Correct, but pollution level declines which started with the introduction of catalytic converters in cars in the early 80s have been modest, as decreased emissions have been partially offset by increased miles driven.  The article talks about the change from "pre-industrial times".

This is an important newly identified stressor to honeybees, but as usual the media reporting of the science is somewhat overblown.  As wetkarma points out, this stressor would have become slightly less important and not more important in recent decades, at least in the US.  It cannot explain the sudden deaths of previously healthy hives, which have increased recently and appear to be largely due to invasive parasites.

15

^ 10

Re: when science ignores reality

postillion.

Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 10:01:16 PM EST

none

My understanding is that pollution can travel quite far.

The one example that caught my attention was pollution from China traveling as far as LA where the rise in acidic rain is being blamed on China's use of coal.

16

^ 15

Re: when science ignores reality

Shy Elf.

Mon Apr 14, 2008 at 01:05:29 PM EST

none

By the time the things that cause acid rain make it across the pacific, they're already depleted to a tenth to a hundredth less of the amount there was to start with.  Since this still causes a significant increase in acid rain in LA, this means acid rain in China has to be really, really bad.

6

can't find pollen!?

DEMachina.

Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 07:31:28 AM EST

4.00 (funny)

C'mon guys; my car is yellow right now!  If they can't find pollen they've just gotten lazy like the rest of us!

Q: What do you think of western civilization? Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.

7

^ 6

Re: can't find pollen!?

Lou.

Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 10:07:32 AM EST

none

Is that pollen from oak trees?  I don't know if oak is on the bee's menu.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

8

^ 7

Re: can't find pollen!?

DEMachina.

Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 10:55:36 AM EST

none

I actually have no idea.  Just trying to give the bees shit.

Q: What do you think of western civilization? Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.

9

^ 8

Re: can't find pollen!?

Lou.

Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 11:16:49 AM EST

5.00 (astute)

Actually, that's fitting since when the bees give us shit, we have honey. (or is it bee vomit that turns into honey?)

Either way, it certainly puts a different spin on that sweet treat we love to eat.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

13

^ 6

Of course it's yellow.

TonedEff.

Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 06:39:27 PM EST

none

You're driving a taxicab.

1

Meta

port1080.

Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 05:43:41 PM EST

none

Sorry for not giving everyone a chance to vote on this - I just meant to vote for it in the "Q", but I hit the wrong button and published it instead. Again, my apologies, my bad.

2

Re: Stop, I Can't Smell The Flowers.

Steve Urkel.

Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 05:45:32 PM EST

none

I thought a lot of the hives that died off were healthy, i.e. they died despite having plenty of stored honey and pollen in them.

5

Re: Stop, I Can't Smell The Flowers.

skeeter1.

Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 01:14:00 AM EST

none

I was under the impression that it was parasites that were killing off the honeybees.  At least that's what a honey-harvesting friend told me when his four hives all croaked off.

there's only one way to find out...

14

Wait, wasn't this solved already?

pO157.

Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 09:11:21 PM EST

none

I thought it was believed to be the result of Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus.

Upon further review WIki says that that virus has been in bees since 2002, so who knows.

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