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European Bee Award goes to…

• 14 November 2015
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Two projects got the "European Bee Award": the first price goes to the dutch initiative "BeeDeals". It unifies several partners which try to improve the living environment of bees - both honeybees and non-managed species.…
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Diversity is better than uniformity

• 23 September 2015
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High variability within species has been theorized to support the performance of populations in front of environmental change. Two researchers from Sweden now for the first time analysed this systematically. By reviewing former studies on…
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Substance in pollen inhibits ovary development in honeybees

• 17 September 2015
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Queen bee larvae are fed with highly proteic food, the royal jelly. Worker bees on the other hand, in addition get pollen and honey after the third day of larval development. In a recent paper,…
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Alien plants all over the world

• 24 August 2015
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Mankind has spread 13.168 plant species in new habitats. This corresponds to 3.9% of the known plant species. A new database (Global Naturalized Alien Flora, GloNAF) analyses the distribution and increase of of these plant…
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Pollinator diversity protects ecosystem service

• 17 August 2015
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Ecosystems usually host a range of different species that have similar or overlapping functions. This is true also for pollinators: a range from bees, butterflies, flies and beetles pollinate flowering plants. In a recent paper,…
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Pollen shortage has long-term consequences

• 5 August 2015
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Pollen is the only protein source for honeybees. The effects of pollen shortage during larval development affect also the behaviour and performance of adult worker bees. This is shown in a recent study, which compared…
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Bumblebees suffer climate change

• 21 July 2015
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The distribution range of many species is expanding north with global warming. The changes in distribution of species depend on their heat or cold tolerance. According to a recent paper, bumblebees' range margins do not…
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Pollination influences global food security

• 16 July 2015
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When the crops grown on our fields were selected, pollination was not the limiting factor. In our days, it is recognized as crucial for global food production. At the same time, pollinator populations are declining…
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Pollinator conservation beyond crops

• 3 July 2015
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Pollination services for agricultural crops are a main argument for conservation of pollinators, especially bees. In a recent paper, David Kleijn and his coauthors state that this argument is not enough for the conservation of…
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Flowering strips don’t help all bees

• 22 June 2015
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Flowering strips or patches are implemented in several agro-environmental schemes across Europe and focus on compensating low availability of foraging plants for bees. A recent paper now finds that current measures do not increase the…
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