Simon G. Potts on Declines in Honey Bees Across Europe
Fast Breaking Commentary, October 2010
Article: Declines of managed honey bees and beekeepers in Europe
Authors: Potts, SG;Roberts, SPM;Dean,
R;Marris, G;Brown, MA;Jones, R;Neumann, P;Settele, J |
Simon G. Potts talks with ScienceWatch.com and answers a few questions about this month's Fast Breaking Paper paper in the field of Plant & Animal Science.
Why do you think your paper is highly cited?
This is the first study to quantify the real extent of declines in honeybees across the whole of Europe. Prior to this there were a handful of local estimates of honeybee losses and a lot of speculation, but this paper now clearly presents the actual degree of honeybee declines across the whole continent.
Does it describe a new discovery, methodology, or synthesis of knowledge?
Yes, it synthesizes highly fragmented, and often very inaccessible, data relating to changes in the number of honeybee hives and beekeepers in 18 European countries since 1965. While this data has always been available, it took our team two years of "detective work" to uncover it.
Would you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?
Honeybees are the most important managed pollinators in Europe and make a significant contribution to the pollination of our food crops and also some wildflower species. Recently there have been local reports that the numbers have been declining; however, it was unclear how big the losses were and how widespread across Europe they were. We took up this challenge and brought together information from 18 European countries to track the changes in the number of honeybees and beekeepers over several decades.
"...the health of our pollinators, as documented in my paper, has wide reaching implications for our health and our economy."
In the Mediterranean we found a small increase in hive numbers; however, the main finding was that in central Europe about a quarter of all hives have been lost since 1985. In some countries this has been particularly severe with more than half of hives lost in England in the same period. Our study shows that this trend is expected to continue and sounds alarm bells for the future reliability of crop pollination and food security.
How did you become involved in this research, and how would you describe the particular challenges, setbacks, and successes that you've encountered along the way?
I have been studying pollinators such as honeybees for 20 years with the aim of providing policy makers with reliable scientific evidence to inform their decisions. Over the last few years there has been a great deal of speculation about the fate of honeybees but with an absence of any solid evidence, so I felt it was essential to add some clarity to the situation.
My team undertook an intensive search for good quality data which was dispersed across Europe and often hidden in obscure journals and reports and in several different languages. When we finally collated and analyzed the data we were amazed at how consistent the declines in honeybees were across Europe and quite shocked at the severity of losses.
Where do you see your research leading in the future?
Now that we have finally established the extent of honeybee declines, we have a firm basis to more critically address the various drivers causing the declines. There are several studies indicating that a wide range of factors—such as pests, pathogens, pesticides, and habitat loss, among others—have caused the loss of honeybees, but we still do not know which are the most important and how widespread their effects are. Once we understand this then we can develop the appropriate mitigation activities to stop the declines and better protect our honeybees.
Do you foresee any social or political implications for your research?
Yes, pollinators such as honeybees are intimately linked to all our livelihoods and wellbeing. For instance, 84% of European crops need insect pollination and the loss of our crop pollinators has major implications for our food security. Many sectors of society benefit from the work pollinators do.
Globally they are worth about £120 billion a year, and farmers, growers, food distributors, shop keepers and the general public will all suffer if we continue to lose our pollinators. Indeed the availability and variety of many fruits and vegetables depends on pollinators, including some of our "5 a day" which are an essential part of healthy diets. So the health of our pollinators, as documented in my paper, has wide-reaching implications for our health and our economy.
Dr. Simon G. Potts
Principal Research Fellow
University of Reading
Reading, UK
KEYWORDS: Author Keywords: Apis mellifera; honey bee declines; colonies; colony losses; beekeeping; pollinator decline.