Bees tagged in bid to solve decline mystery

BEES are being fitted with tiny radio ID tags to monitor their movements as part of an investigation into their alarming decline in the UK.

Research is being conducted in Yorkshire and around the country as scientists investigate whether pesticides used to bolster crop production could actually be harming the very insects which pollinate them in the first place.

Scientists will examine if such chemicals could be giving the insects brain disorders which damage their abilities to gather food, navigate and even perform their famous "waggle dance" through which they tell other bees where nectar can be found.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The study will include fitting tiny radio frequency ID tags on bees which will act like "barcodes at the supermarket", recording when they come in and out of the hive, while the insects will also be weighed to see how successful they are at bringing back food.

The investigation is part of a range of studies commissioned to look at declines in the levels of the insects, the knock-on effect of which could be disastrous for the UK food and farming economies.

Financial experts estimate the value of insect pollinators to the national economy as being as much as 440m.

Scientists claim that already three of the UK's 25 bumblebee species have become extinct, while other species have suffered declines of up to 70 per cent.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Similarly three quarters of butterfly species are declining, with very little "robust science" having been carried out on what was happening to other insect pollinators such as hoverflies, the researchers said.

Other research being funded as part of the 10m initiative include a study into insects in cities, the impacts of disease on pollinating insects and the effects of modern agriculture on bees.

Scientists are also looking at whether the decline in wildflowers such as red clover and bird's foot trefoil is the result of falling numbers of insects to pollinate them.

Professor Andrew Watkinson, director of the Living with Environmental Change programme under which the projects are being funded, said: "We've seen well-documented changes in our birds, our flowers and also in some of our insects.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Now there is growing concern insect pollinators are in decline."

He said declining numbers of honeybees, bumblebee species, hoverflies and butterflies posed a problem not just for wildlife but for the economy.

He said there was "no single factor" that could explain the declines, but a whole range of potential issues ranging from agricultural practices to the use of pesticides.

Dr Chris Connolly, of the University of Dundee, who is leading research into the damage chemicals could be doing to insects, said it was unlikely a single pesticide was having a direct impact on bees.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A combination of chemicals could, however, be affecting their nervous systems and damaging their ability to learn, communicate, navigate and forage.

His research will study the impacts of combinations of chemicals from the cellular level up to seeing how bees manage learning and behaviour tasks.

It will also add flower mixes high in nectar and pollen to selected habitats in Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds and Reading to test whether the extra food provision boosts numbers of pollinators.

Scientists at Leeds University, who are leading two of the eight research projects and partnering on a third, have been awarded 1.47m in funding for the studies to be conducted by ecologists, climate scientists, economists and computer scientists.