Bee Colony Collapse Research Articles

Overcoming high temperature inhibition of flower formation and fruit production without bees

AbstractFlower formation in the Cucurbitaceae family is compromised at high temperatures; both male and female flowers and therefore fruit productivity are greatly reduced as the growing temperatures for these vegetable crops are increased above 26C. This intractable phenomenon has been documented both with outdoor field experiments at various latitudes on the eastern seaboard in the USA and in a laboratory, temperature-regulated setting. We now report that an agricultural product, FP, which has been, and is used globally on many commercial crops to increase flower number and strength during blossom formation and development, overcomes the apparent refractory floral initiation and development at high temperatures. This is a new and unexpected finding. Additionally, in another facet of the experiments reported here, the parthenocarpic fruit development potential of FP was tested by eliminating bee pollination. This aspect of the study was addressed in part because of the recent concerns with bee colony collapse disorder. Flower formation, flower development and fruit yield were increased by FP over the bee-pollinated, untreated controls at high temperatures. FP was developed over a number of years of outdoor field trials as an approach to crop productivity that included hormonal regulation of floral strength and supported by mineral supplements through to the fruit production process.

Honeybees, Communicative Order, and the Collapse of Ecosystems

The paper examines the sudden disappearance in the United States of millions of honeybees in managed bee colonies. The major research undertaken in the U.S. concentrates on finding the pathogens responsible. This paper suggests an alternative avenue of research a) that as a result of global warming there is a disjunction between bees pollinating cycles and the life cycle of plants b) that understanding changes in “timing cycles” as a result of global warming is the key to understanding the disappearance of the bees. It notes that Gregory Bateson argued that any condition of ecosystem collapse would be characterized first by a collapse in its communicative order rather, than from changed physical states. The collapse of bee colonies and demise of other pollinators is a seeming confirmation of Gregory Bateson argument. Honeybees are ‘go betweens’ in ecosystemic order. It also argues that an appropriate topology of timing cycles and their recursions would enable better visual comprehension of the heterarchical ‘pattern which connects’, in Bateson’s phrase, and prompt awareness of possible catastrophe in human food supplies.

Honey bee colony collapse disorder is possibly caused by a dietary pyrethrum deficiency

Industrialized farming relies on bee keepers transporting hives to the vicinity of large areas of mono-crops for crop pollination. Hives are typically moved multiple times per growing season to satisfy the pollination need. A phenomenon wherein colonies of honey bees collapse in large numbers has been threatening crops in North America. Honey bees are hosts to at least two pathogenic mites; Varroa destructor and Acarapis woodi (a tracheal mite). Pyrethrums are a group of flowering plants which include Chrysanthemum coccineum, Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium, Chrysanthemum marschallii, and related species. These plants produce potent insecticides, also named pyrethrums, which are powerful mite toxins. We believe that a honey bee dietary deficiency of pyrethrums and other micro-nutrients from pyrethrum producing plants allows parasitic mites to either kill the honey bees directly or reduce honey bee resistance to other pathogens. Intermittent feeding of honey bees on pyrethrum producing plants might reverse or prevent colony collapse disorder.

Honey bee colony collapse disorder: a role for Israeli acute paralysis virus?

Honey bee colony collapse disorder: a role for Israeli acute paralysis virus?

How natural infection by Nosema ceranae causes honeybee colony collapse

In recent years, honeybees (Apis mellifera) have been strangely disappearing from their hives, and strong colonies have suddenly become weak and died. The precise aetiology underlying the disappearance of the bees remains a mystery. However, during the same period, Nosema ceranae, a microsporidium of the Asian bee Apis cerana, seems to have colonized A. mellifera, and it's now frequently detected all over the world in both healthy and weak honeybee colonies. For first time, we show that natural N. ceranae infection can cause the sudden collapse of bee colonies, establishing a direct correlation between N. ceranae infection and the death of honeybee colonies under field conditions. Signs of colony weakness were not evident until the queen could no longer replace the loss of the infected bees. The long asymptomatic incubation period can explain the absence of evident symptoms prior to colony collapse. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that healthy colonies near to an infected one can also become infected, and that N. ceranae infection can be controlled with a specific antibiotic, fumagillin. Moreover, the administration of 120 mg of fumagillin has proven to eliminate the infection, but it cannot avoid reinfection after 6 months. We provide Koch's postulates between N. ceranae infection and a syndrome with a long incubation period involving continuous death of adult bees, non-stop brood rearing by the bees and colony loss in winter or early spring despite the presence of sufficient remaining pollen and honey.

A Review and Bibliography of the Literature of Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder: A Poorly Understood Epidemic that Clearly Threatens the Successful Pollination of Billions of Dollars of Crops in America

ABSTRACT This article briefs agricultural librarians on three key aspects of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a disease involving the virtually total disappearance and presumed annihilation of the adult bee population of hives: (1) the yearly multibillion dollar importance of honeybees as the nation's key crop pollinators and the annual $200 million domestic production and export of honey; (2) the more common bee diseases and well-known hive stressors that current theories of CCD suggest interact with each other in some as yet undetermined combination, perhaps including new pathogens to which most American bees have limited or no immunity; and (3) several bees other than the honeybee that are not currently affected by CCD and that have some potential as partial substitute pollinators for some crops.

The Latest Buzz About Colony Collapse Disorder

The Report “A metagenomic survey of microbes in honey bee colony collapse disorder” (D. L. Cox-Foster et al. , 12 October 2007, p. [283][1]) identified Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) as a putative marker for colony collapse disorder (CCD). It also purports to show a relationship between U.