wild pollination News
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Wild insects could take over the pollinating role of honeybees
Scientists have identified several wild insects that could undertake the crop pollination function of honeybees. By comparing a range of pollinating insects they found three wild species that appear to be as efficient as the honeybee in pollination but may need management to increase their numbers. The honeybee (Apis mellifera) is in rapid decline worldwide. While it is important to understand ...
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Loss of wild pollinators could substantially reduce soybean yields
Pollination by wild insects and honey bees improves soybean yield by 18%, new research has indicated. This equates to an extra 331.6 kg of seeds per hectare, boosting the value of the global crop by €12.74 billion. Encouraging insect pollination could therefore reduce the destruction of natural ecosystems to make way for soybean cultivation, the researchers say. The soybean is one of the ...
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Loss of wild pollinators would hit crops, finds study
The loss of wild pollinators from agricultural landscapes could threaten global crop yields, a study has found. Led by Lucas Garibaldi, an assistant professor at the National University of Río Negro inArgentina, a team of researchers compared fields containing many wild pollinators — mostly insects — with those containing few. They studied 41 crop systems across all continents ...
By SciDev.Net
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Wild bees boost apple harvest
Orchards pollinated by a wide range of wild bee species grow more apples than those pollinated by fewer species, finds a new US study. Its authors suggest that farmers could consider investing in wild bee conservation to improve crop yield. Many farmers around the world hire or manage hives of honeybees to help pollinate crops including fruit and nuts. However, demand for pollinator-dependent ...
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Conservation efforts may be paying off for wild plants and insect pollinators
Since the 1990s, rates of biodiversity loss of wild plants and their insect pollinators have slowed down in north-west Europe, according to a recent study. It is likely that conservation activities, such as agri-environmental schemes, have contributed to this improving situation. The loss of wild species and habitats as a result of agricultural intensification and habitat destruction has ...
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Conservation efforts may be paying off for wild plants and insect pollinators
Since the 1990s, rates of biodiversity loss of wild plants and their insect pollinators have slowed down in north-west Europe, according to a recent study. It is likely that conservation activities, such as agri-environmental schemes, have contributed to this improving situation. The loss of wild species and habitats as a result of agricultural intensification and habitat destruction has ...
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Wild Bee Decline Threatens U.S. Crop Production
The first national study to map U.S. wild bees suggests they’re disappearing in many of the country’s most important farmlands — including California’s Central Valley, the Midwest’s corn belt and the Mississippi River valley. If losses of these crucial pollinators continue, the new nationwide assessment indicates that farmers will face increasing costs — and ...
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Warning from European Academies of Science about implications of neonicotinoid use
A joint report to the European Commission from the Academies of Science in the EU Member States concludes that there is rapidly increasing scientific evidence that neonicotinoids have a significant negative impact on the natural environment. Some of the organisms affected fulfil important functions in agricultural areas, for example, the wild pollinators and the predatory insects which can play ...
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Pollinators vital to our food supply under threat
A growing number of pollinator species worldwide are being driven toward extinction by diverse pressures, many of them human-made, threatening millions of livelihoods and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of food supplies, according to the first global assessment of pollinators. However, the assessment, a two-year study conducted and released today by the Intergovernmental ...
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Pesticides may harm wild bees but natural areas can mitigate effects
The use of pesticides in orchards may be threatening populations of wild bees, which are important pollinators that increase crop productivity, a new study concludes. However, the damage was mitigated in areas where the orchards were surrounded by natural landscapes, such as deciduous forests. Pollinators, such as bees, provide an important and often underappreciated ecosystem service to ...
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EPA Plan to Save Bees Skirts the Issue, Ignores Most Problematic Form of Pesticide Use
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed a new rule today restricting the use of pesticides on crops when honey bees are present for contracted pollination services. While the rule would apply to nearly all insecticides, including neonicotinoids that have been linked to bee population declines, it would not address the most widespread and most problematic use of ...
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Neonicotinoid pesticides are a huge risk – so ban is welcome, says EEA
The European Commission has decided to ban three neonicotinoid insecticides. These chemicals can harm honeybees, according to a large body of scientific evidence, so the European Environment Agency (EEA) commends the precautionary decision to ban them. The three banned insecticides are clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam. A recent assessment from the European Food Safety Authority also ...
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Bee pollination improves crop quality as well as quantity
Bee pollination improves the shape, weight and shelf-life of strawberries, contributing a staggering €1.05 billion to the European strawberry market per year, new research suggests. By blocking bees from a set of plants, the researchers demonstrated the substantial effects of bee pollination on the quality of the fruit. It is well established that insect pollination increases the quantity ...
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Protectuin for Pollinators: Conservation Groups and Scientists Push USDA to Save Wild Bumble Bees
Leading conservation and science voices renewed their call today for a key federal agency to protect bumble bees in light of numerous threats contributing to population declines. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Defenders of Wildlife and Dr. Robbin Thorp asked the Secretary of Agriculture to take action on a petition to regulate the ...
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