honey bee pollination
Non-native honey bees crowding at a flower of the native coast prickly pear cactus (Opuntia littoralis) in Southern California. Image credit: James Hung/UC San Diego
by Mario Aguilera, UC San Diego
Honey bees are essential for natural ecosystems, according to a worldwide study.. The first quantitative analysis of its kind, led by biologists at the University of California San Diego, is published Jan. 10 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The report weaves together information from 80 plant-pollinator interaction networks. The results show honey bees are the most common visitors to natural plants.. Honey bees were recorded in 89 percent of the pollination networks in the honey bee’s native range and in 61 percent in regions where honey bees have been introduced by humans.
One out of eight interactions between a non-agricultural plant and a pollinator is carried out by the honey bee, the study revealed. The honey bee is an important species among the tens of thousands of pollinators, such as wasps, flies, beetles, butterflies, moths and other bee species..
Keng-Lou James Hung, a researcher from Ohio State University, found that honey bees are the most successful pollinators in the world..
honey bee pollination
The western honey bee contributes to 80 plant-pollinator networks worldwide.. Honey bees are generally considered a native species in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and introduced elsewhere. Image credit: Hung, Kingston, Albrecht, Holway, and Kohn, 2018.
"In spite of the fact that they seem to excessively affect regular environments, shockingly we see almost no about the bumble bee's natural impacts in non-farming frameworks," said concentrate on coauthor and UC San Diego teacher David Holway. "Planning ahead this study brings up a ton of new issues."
For instance, in San Diego, where honey bees are not native, they are responsible for 75 percent of pollinator visits to native plants, the highest honey bee dominance in the set of networks examined for any continental site in the introduced range of the honey bee. This is despite the fact that there are more than 650 species of native bees in San Diego County as well as many other native pollinating insects. This analysis was conducted at the UC Natural Reserve System’s Elliott Chaparral and Scripps Coastal reserves, among other sites.
“The consequences of this phenomenon for both native plants that did not evolve with the honey bee and for populations of native insect pollinators is well worth studying,” said the study’s senior author, UC San Diego professor Joshua Kohn.
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