Latest Pollination Stories
Organic cultivation methods not only benefit biodiversity; they also appear to have a positive effect on the ecosystem service pollination. In a study of strawberry plants in Skåne, the proportion of fully pollinated flowers was significantly higher on organic farms. This is shown in new research from Lund University in Sweden. The study is based on studies of strawberry plants on twelve farms in the county of Skåne, Sweden. On the farms with 'KRAV' organic certification, where neither...
Latest Example of Global Committment to Bee Care and Sustainable Agriculture Research Triangle Park, NC (PRWEB) March 02, 2012 Bayer CropScience has launched a new bee health component of its U.S. Website, highlighting the important role bees play in agriculture and underscoring Bayer’s ongoing commitment to ensuring honey bee health. Visitors to the website can find out more about the important role bees and pollination play in agriculture, meet Bayer’s resident bee expert, learn how...
Wild bees are important pollinators and numerous studies dealing with pollination of wild plants and crops underline their vital role in ecosystems functioning. While honey bees can be easily transported to various location when needed, wild bees' presence is dependent on the availability of high quality semi-natural habitats. Some crops, such as apples and cherries, and many wild flowers are more effectively pollinated by wild bees and other insects rather than managed honey bees....
Pollen recovered in a 2,500-year-old garden helps reconstruct a paradise of exotic plants, say TAU researchers Researchers have long been fascinated by the secrets of Ramat Rahel, located on a hilltop above modern-day Jerusalem. The site of the only known palace dating back to the kingdom of Biblical Judah, digs have also revealed a luxurious ancient garden. Since excavators discovered the garden with its advanced irrigation system, they could only imagine what the original garden might...
Organic farms produce strawberries with fewer malformations and a higher proportion of fully pollinated berries relative to conventional forms, according to a Feb. 15 report in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The study, led by Georg Andersson of Lund University in Sweden, investigated the effect of organic farming compared to conventional. They found that the pollination success increased greatly with organic farming, and speculate that this effect may be due to an increase in insect...
Bumblebees can use cues from their rivals the honeybees to learn where the best food resources are, according to new research from Queen Mary, University of London. Writing in the journal PLoS ONE, the team from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences explain how they trained a colony of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) to use cues provided by a different species, the honeybee (Apis mellifera), as well as cues provided by fellow bumblebees to locate food resources on...
New plant species from Madagascar smells like roadkill The famed "corpse flower" plant – known for its giant size, rotten-meat odor and phallic shape – has a new, smaller relative: A University of Utah botanist discovered a new species of Amorphophallus that is one-fourth as tall but just as stinky. The new species, collected on two small islands off Madagascar, brings to about 170 the number of species in the genus Amorphophallus, which is Greek for "misshapen penis" because of the...
Compromises between quantity and quality are common in animals, but do the same tradeoffs hold true for plants and their flowers? Most creatures face compromises when they reproduce — the more energy they devote to having lots of babies, the less they can invest in each one. But do the same tradeoffs hold true for plants? Biologists have long assumed that plants with bigger, showier flowers can make fewer of them per plant. But the data don't always hold up, scientists say. A new study...
Honeybee populations have been in serious decline for years, and Purdue University scientists may have identified one of the factors that cause bee deaths around agricultural fields. Analyses of bees found dead in and around hives from several apiaries over two years in Indiana showed the presence of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are commonly used to coat corn and soybean seeds before planting. The research showed that those insecticides were present at high concentrations in waste...
Commercial beekeepers and environmentalists shed light on honey bee losses and impact on future food prices LAS VEGAS, Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, beekeepers from across the country gathered at a national conference, with environmental organizations at their side, to draw attention to the growing plight facing their industry -the decline of honey bees - a problem that has far reaching implications for the U.S. economy. "Bees and other pollinators are the...
Latest Pollination Reference Libraries
Apiology is the scientific study of honey bees, a subdiscipline of melittology (the study of all bees), which is a subdiscipline of entomology. Melittology comprises of more than 17,000 species other than the honey bee. Apiology includes apicology, which is the study of honey bee ecology. Honey bees are often chosen as a study group to answer questions on the evolution of social systems. People who study honey bees are called apiologists. There have been a number of notable apiologists...
The Lily of the Nile or Calla Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) is a species of plant native to southern Africa in Lesotho, South Africa, and Swaziland. It has been introduced to Western Australia where it occurs in high periodical water tables and sandy soil. Several hybrids have been established and introduced to other areas around the world. Some hybrids are more suited to cooler climates. One hybrid, Crowborough, grows better in the British Isles and the northwestern United States than it...
The Souimanga Sunbird (Cinnyris sovimanga), is a small passerine bird of the sunbird family, Nectariniidae. It is native to the islands of the western Indian Ocean where it occurs on Madagascar, the Aldabra Group and the Glorioso Islands. The Souimanga Sunbird can be found in a variety of habitats from mountain forests to mangroves and scrubland as well as in parks, gardens and other human-modified ecosystems. Souimanga Sunbirds are one of the most common small land birds across much of their...
The Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis), also known as the Yellow-bellied Sunbird, is an Asian sunbird. The Olive-backed Sunbird is common across southern China to the Philippines and Malaysia down to northeast Australia. Originally from mangrove habitat, the Olive-backed sunbird has adapted well to humans, and is now common even in fairly densely populated areas, even forming their nests in human dwellings. They are small songbirds, at most 4.75 inches long. The underparts of both...
The Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus), is a sunbird that is part of a group of very small Old World passerine birds. It is an abundant resident breeder across tropical southern Asia from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia. One to three eggs are laid in a suspended nest in a tree. This species is found in a variety of habitats with some trees, including forest and cultivation. Purple Sunbirds are tiny, only 4 inches long. They have medium-length thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped...
