XPost: sci.misc
From the «we need more bees, fewer humans» department:
Title: Bees Give Up Searching for Food When Humans Degrade Their Land
Author: charon
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2017 18:52:00 -0500
Link:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/02/08/1938255&from=rss
Phoenix666[1] writes:
A new study into honey bees has revealed the significant effect human impact has on a bee's metabolism[2], and ultimately its survival.
Researchers from The University of Western Australia in collaboration with Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Curtin University and CSIRO have completed a world-first study on insect metabolism in free flying insects, focusing on
the honey bee. The study funded by an Australian Research Council linkage
award has revealed the significant effect human impact on the environment had on bees, which are crucial for the planet, pollinating one-third of
everything we eat.
Landscapes that have been degraded mean a reduction in the availability of resources which affects the metabolic rate of the honey bee and puts more strain on its body's ability to function.
Emeritus Professor Don Bradshaw from UWA's School of Biological Sciences said the researchers wanted to find out how honey bees' metabolism was impacted by human made changes to the environment such as clearing of land.
To do this they used a unique method to measure the energy expenditure of
bees, originally developed by Professor Bradshaw and used in his research on honey possums. Through this method they were able to measure the metabolic
rate of bees when they are in their natural environment, and compare pristine environments rich in resources to degraded environments.
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Original Submission[3]
Read more of this story[4] at SoylentNews.
Links:
[1]:
http://soylentnews.org/~Phoenix666/ (link)
[2]:
https://phys.org/news/2017-02-bees-food-humans-degrade.html (link)
[3]:
http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=18480 (link)
[4]:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/02/08/1938255&from=rss (link)
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