2024-08-04 16:19:06
Walking through a flower field in spring allows us to notice the noise of small winged visitors moving from one place to another, landing on different flowers. At each stop, they try to collect pollen or drink the sugary nectar of certain plants. They are a true army, consisting of insects, birds and small animals.
When a bumblebee with black and bright yellow hair lands on a flower, it dives between the stamens and collects the pollen with its hairy legs. It is a passionate work, during which you not only collect the flavor in your fingers, but also release the rain of pollen grains from the stamens. When you finish your job, the bumblebee takes flight and visits another flower. There, when she begins a new collection, the flower collects some of the foreign pollen grains placed in the body of the bumblebee, and uses them to make hidden eggs.
The bumblebee is one of more than 200,000 species of insects known in the world. In bees alone, which are the most famous insects, more than 20,000 species are known, “double the number of known bird species,” AinhoaMagrach, researcher at the Institute Basque for Climate Change and our guest today on talking with Scientists. Ainhoa works on the effects of global change on the functioning of ecosystems, and one of the most important effects is on pollinators in many places around the world.
Among the predators, in addition to many species of bees and bumblebees, flies, beetles, moths, birds such as hummingbirds and animals such as some types of bats. Its diversity and importance in the animal and plant world is such that it is thought that 85% of flowering plants, angiosperms, depend on pollinators for their existence.
Unfortunately, dust collectors are increasing in many places in the world and behind this reduction lies, once again, people. Ainhoa reviewed some of the reasons during the interview.
Unfortunately, dust collectors are increasing in many places around the world and, once again, behind this reduction is the influence of people. Ainhoa reviewed some of the reasons during the interview.
Urbanization, deforestation and the expansion of intensive agriculture have significantly reduced natural habitats. The practice of monoculture reduces the diversity of plants that provide nectar and pollen, depriving pollinators of a balanced diet. Pesticides, especially neonicotinoids, are highly toxic to pollinators. These chemicals can weaken your immune system and affect your ability to move and reproduce.
In addition, changes in climate affect flowering patterns and the availability of food for producers, breaking the synergy between the appearance of flowers and the brightness of the flowers they depend on. These changes can also lead to the appearance of new predators and diseases.
Many of these problems are caused by people and, as often happens in nature when the balance is broken, the results have a boomerang effect that ends up affecting our activities again. A large number of plants depend on pollination to produce fruits and seeds. The reduction of pollinators can lead to lower production of foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
A reduction in predators can increase costs for farmers, who may have to resort to manual beekeeping or rent bees from bees and other predators.
Pollinators are important for the reproduction of many wild plants. Its reduction can lead to a decrease in plant biodiversity and, therefore, affect all organisms that depend on those plants.
How can we fight against the decline of pollinators?
There are many ways, AinhoaMagrach explained during the interview. One of them is to establish and protect good habitats for predators, such as flower gardens and ecological corridors. It must be noted that some predators have their habitats in specific places, such as dead wood or the ground. To protect them, it will be enough to leave a part of the agricultural waste in certain places that these polluters can use or manage the plowing of agriculture or moving the soil in a way that the seasons of nature are respected.
It is important to promote the use of sustainable agricultural practices, avoiding the preventive use of pesticides, which involves handling a planting before a problem. This not only increases pollution and expense, but is also harmful to cleaners. In this sense, integrated pest control is increasingly being used, which affects these products only when a real problem is detected and not prevented.
Another conservation approach is to encourage crop diversity, encouraging diversified agriculture and crop rotation to provide a variety of food sources for planters.
To discover the best forms for land use and the desire to live and interact with pollinators, it is necessary to support research on pollinators and their threats, and set up monitoring programs to assess the health of their populations. .
It is also important to educate citizens and farmers about the importance of predators and how they can help protect them.
I invite you to listen to a researcher from the Basque Center for Climate Change.
References:
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