Global warming may cause bees to mistime Spring emergence, missing their food supply

6 July 2017 (Yale Environment 360) –  If it’s all in the timing, then climate change may spell problems for bees. Scientists have found that global warming may cause temporal mismatches between bees and the plant species on which they depend for food.German researchers from the University of Würzburg, reporting in the Journal of Animal […]

Where have all the insects gone? “We can cause massive damage to biodiversity — damage that harms us”

By Gretchen Vogel10 May 2017 (Science) – Entomologists call it the windshield phenomenon. “If you talk to people, they have a gut feeling. They remember how insects used to smash on your windscreen,” says Wolfgang Wägele, director of the Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity in Bonn, Germany. Today, drivers spend less time scraping and scrubbing. […]

Disastrous 2016 shows butterflies are “failing to cope with our changing climate and how we manage the environment”

By Ian Johnston Environment11 April 2017 (The Independent) – Butterflies are “failing to cope” with climate change and the pollution of the British countryside, experts have warned after a disastrous year saw population declines in 40 out of 57 species. The UK Butterfly Monitoring Survey found it had been the fourth-worst year overall with six […]

The Honey Nut Cheerios box is changing for a disturbing reason

By Christopher Luu19 March 2017 (Refinery29) – The next time that you pick up a box of Honey Nut Cheerios, you’ll notice a very important thing missing. No, not the toys, they’ve never been in this particular cereal. Look closer. BuzzBee, the lovable bee mascot, is gone. General Mills announced that Honey Nut Cheerios boxes […]

Trump administration delays listing of rusty patched bumblebee as endangered

By Shreya Dasgupta10 February 2017 (Mongabay) – Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) declared that it was placing the rusty patched bumblebee on the U.S. endangered species list. The listing would have taken effect today, making this nearly extinct bumblebee the very first bumblebee species to be protected under the Endangered Species […]

U.S. lists first bumble bee species as endangered

By Steve Gorman; Editing by Sandra Maler10 January 2017 (Reuters) – The rusty patched bumble bee, a prized but vanishing pollinator once familiar to much of North America, was listed on Tuesday as an endangered species, becoming the first wild bee in the continental United States to gain such federal protection. One of several species […]

Extreme weather causing record lows in UK butterfly populations

31 October 2016 (New Scientist) – British butterflies could be under threat from increasingly frequent episodes of extreme weather. In fact, heat waves, cold snaps, and heavy rain may have already contributed to reported butterfly population crashes. Researchers analysed data from the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS), which contains information on butterfly populations collected from […]

Food production, ecosystem services, and biodiversity: We can’t have it all everywhere

ABSTRACT: Debate about how sustainable intensification and multifunctionality might be implemented continues, but there remains little understanding as to what extent they are achievable in arable landscapes. Policies that influence agronomic decisions are rarely made with an appreciation of the trade-offs that exist between food production, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem service provision. We present an […]

Hawaii’s only native bees placed on Endangered Species list

HONOLULU, 30 September 2016 (AP) – Federal authorities added seven yellow-faced bee species, Hawaii’s only native bees, for protection under the Endangered Species Act Friday, a first for any bees in the United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the listing after years of study by the conservation group Xerces Society. The group […]

Neonicotinoid insecticides linked to wild bee decline across England – Study finds ‘increased population extinction rates in response to neonicotinoid seed treatment’

16 August 2016 (CEH) – Exposure to neonicotinoid seed treated oilseed rape crops has been linked to long-term population decline of wild bee species across the English countryside, according to research published today in Nature Communications. The research, led by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology using data provided by Fera Science Ltd and the […]

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