Bees Need It Colorful

Credit: Sara Leonhardt

To perform the study, scientists installed bee colonies in three different habitats. “We chose natural forests, urban gardens and macadamia plantations with intensive agricultural use and observed the growth and the production of worker bees, queens and new colonies,” says Dr. Benjamin Kaluza, lead author of the study. They also analyzed the nutritional quality of the pollen and honey collected, and charted the plant biodiversity in these habitats.

Decline of biodiversity as a cause for bee extinction

What they found was: The bees’ quality of life was highest in gardens and biodiverse forests, and lowest in plantations. As the plant biodiversity declines, bees produce less offspring, so that colonies shrink in size. “Bees need diversity,” says Kaluza. “Only in environments rich in plant species do they find continuously sufficient, balanced and high-quality food and other resources.”

Leonhardt explains that even small habitat islands with a high diversity of blooming plants in flight distance are sufficient for this effect to be apparent. “It allows them to compensate the negative influence of both pesticides and monocultures,” she says, and adds: “This result means that the worldwide massive decline of biodiversity could be one of the main causes of bee extinction.”

What follows from their findings: “What we hope for now is, of course, more protection and restoration of biodiverse habitats, especially in regions intensive agricultural use, such as plantations,” says Kaluza.

Contacts and sources:
Sara Leonhardt