Major Research Initiative

 Habitat Adaptation Research

Multi-year investigation into how the World can develop policies to facilitate human adaptation to habitat change.

Initiative, to be managed by Pilgrims Publishing Technology Policy Program.  It will encompass a broad spectrum of issues affecting all sectors and all levels; agriculture, surface and groundwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, public health, and how the use of all land types effect our habitat.

Potential to Alter Habitat

European Honey Bee (apis mellifera) collecting Pollen

Clearly, adaptation will be as crucial to managing habitat change as mitigation. To date, however, research on adaptation policy is both limited and spread to thinly. The work will bring a deeper and more coherent approach to the subject via co-operational research.

More attention from decision makers is imperative to accommodate habitat trends that are already underway.

One significant component of this work will be an examination of honey bee breeding criteria within the industry, and the introduction of other types of pollinator breeding programs which could help the most affected industry sectors worldwide (food production).

New types of pollinator policies to manage unanticipated habitat loss due to and associated with environment change as well as the role of government in such areas as global food production i.e. global Agriculture based risks will be a key focus of the Pilgrims Publishing study teams.

European Beewolf (philanthus triangulum) is a solitary wasp, that lives in Europe and Northern Africa. Though the Beewolf is a herbivores - feeding on nectar and pollen for food, the species gets its name because the fertilized females hunt down the Western honey bee, paralyze it with a non-killing sting, and placing several honey bees in a small underground chamber and then lay a single egg in the chamber with them. Where the honey bee serve as food for the Beewolf wasp larvae. All members of the genus Philanthus hunt various species of honey bee. However, the philanthus triangulum is the only one that hunts the Western honey bee.

Beewolf Condition in UK

This wasp was previously considered to be a great rarity in Great Britain, with colonies only found in sandy habitats on the Isle of Wight and the beachs of Suffolk. It has undergone an expansion in range, with the wasp now locally common in a steadily increasing number of sites as far north as Yorkshire 2002. Risk status has changed because of its increased range and large population.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a little-understood phenomenon in which worker bees from a Western honey bee beehive or colony abruptly disappear. 

CCD was originally found in Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006. European beekeepers observed a similar phenomenon in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, and new reports have now come in from Switzerland and Germany. Cases have also been reported in the far east (china, japan, taiwan) since April 2007.

The cause of the CCD syndrome is not yet well understood. Theories include environmental change-related stresses, malnutrition, pathogens (i.e., disease including the "Israel Acute Paralysis Virus", mites, pesticides such as neonicotinoids or imidacloprid, and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics such as transgenic maize.

Some claim that the disappearances have not been reported from organic beekeepers, suggesting to some that beekeeping practices can be a factor.

Global orchards and farmers fields have grown much larger - at the same time wild pollinators have declined massively.

Initiative will build on our substantial leadership in habitat  understanding, and will establish Pilgrims Publishing as a global center on habitat adaptation and modification research.

Especially noted was the decline of the honeybee, which is vital to agriculture since it pollinates more than 100 commercially grown crops. 

Three quarters of all flowering plants, including those used for food crops, fiber, drugs and fuel rely totally on pollinators for fertilization, to the point that farmers often lease thousands of colonies of bees to ensure their crops are fertilized each year.

The decline in pollinator populations is one form of global change that actually has a huge credible potential to totally alter the shape and structure of terrestrial ecosystems.

The report stated that wild pollinator populations had already diminished, and the trend of decreasing populations will disrupt many ecosystems in the near future. The report also noted that little or no population data exists for many pollinators, which led the council to recommend an increase in monitoring efforts and attempts to understand their basic ecology. Data has been available in Europe, and the researchers not only documented pollinator population declines, but also extinctions in some cases, and there was still enough evidence uncovered that clearly showed North American species are declining just as fast, and that US native feral honey bees have become extinct. 

The committee recommended that the Research Council work to improve its surveys of honeybee populations, perform them by annually, and that the Research Council itself should collaborate with USDA, Canada, Mexico and other Europe states to form long-term monitoring projects.

The shortage has been so severe that honeybees have been imported in to North America for the last 10 years. The Research Council committee reported that non-native pests was still a valid concern, and agreed that agricultural agencies in the UK, Europe, United States, Canada, and Mexico take precautions against non-native pests (i.e. mites + virus).

The report said that the causes of population decline in wild pollinators depend on the species, but all are difficult to determine due to the lack of population data. The honeybee and bumblebee populations have both been harmed by the introduction of separate non-native parasites, and many other pollinator populations have been depleted due to the loss of natural habitats. The report noted that U.S. data has already linked primary habitat loss with declining populations except in the case of bats, which can be definitively linked to the destruction of cave roosting sites all over both the USA and in Europe.

Although a single pollinator is rarely crucial to a plant's survival, some plants could be more vulnerable to extinction if wild pollinator populations continue their decline. Reversing the trend would require a level of knowledge about pollinator populations that does not yet exist.

The committee urged the governmental agencies to research methods of native honey bee conservation. It also recommended that landowners make their properties more "pollinator friendly" through simple and relatively inexpensive techniques such as growing native plants.

Hazards to the Honey Bee Survival

Western honey bee populations have recently faced threats to their survival. North American and European honey bee populations were severely depleted by varroa mite infestations in the early 1990s. Varroa Mite can be seen with the naked eye as a small red or brown spot on the bee's thorax. Chemical treatments against Varroa mites saved most commercial operations and improved cultural practices. Varroa was discovered Southeast Asia in 1904,  has now spread virtually worldwide. United States 1987 and New Zealand by 2000.

US beekeepers were further affected by Colony Collapse Disorder in 2006 and 2007. New bee breeding stocks are starting to reduce the dependency on miticides (acaracides) by beekeepers.

Feral bee populations were greatly reduced during this period but now are slowly recovering, mostly in areas of mild climate, owing to natural selection for Varroa resistance and repopulation by resistant breeds. Further, Insecticides, particularly when used in violation of legal directions, have also depleted bee populations, while various bee pests and diseases are becoming resistant to medications.

Environmental Hazards

In North America, Africanized bees have spread across the southern United States where they pose a danger to humans, they make all types of beekeeping very difficult and potentially dangerous.

As an invasive species, feral honey bees have become a significant environmental problem in places where they are not native. Imported bees compete with and displace native bees and birds, and may also promote the reproduction of invasive plants that native pollinators do not visit.

Also, unlike native bees, they do not properly extract or transfer pollen from plants with poricidal anthers (anthers that only release pollen through tiny apical pores), as this requires buzz pollination, a behavior which honey bees rarely exhibit. For example, it was found in 1998 that honey bees reduce fruiting in Melastoma affine (a plant with poricidal anthers) by robbing its stigmas of deposited pollen that was previously deposited by other bees.

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