Recently, South Korean authoritative media reported
There are more than 4,000 beekeepers in the country
About 7.8 billion bees are kept
Collective "disappearance"
Cause huge losses
And the "black hand" behind the scenes pointed directly
Unusually high temperatures
Why do bees collectively "disappear"?
What are the dangers of a sharp decline in the number of bees?
What are the effects of meteorological factors on bee farming?
Climate change pair
It has the largest number in the world
What are the warnings for the mainland of domestic bee colonies?
The picture shows beekeepers checking bee growth
Zhejiang, Hubei, Sichuan and other provinces in the mainland are traditional beekeeping provinces, and the local meteorological department has carried out bee breeding meteorological services. On the above issues, a reporter from China Meteorological Daily interviewed Wei Lihua, deputy director of the Meteorological Bureau of Changxing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, and Zhu Daohua, director of the Meteorological Bureau of Danyang City, Hubei Province.
The collective "disappearance" of bees is not the first. According to records, the earliest collective "disappearance" of bees occurred in the 1860s. Since then, many similar incidents have occurred in many European countries. By the 1970s, the collective "disappearance" of bees in many parts of the United States began to occur frequently, and in just over 30 years, the wild bee population in the United States almost disappeared. This has attracted the attention of many scientists in the United States, and by the end of 2006, American scientists named this phenomenon "colony collapse syndrome".
The reason for the "disappearance" of The Korean bees is speculated to be related to the abuse of pesticides, the spread of insect viruses and extreme weather and climate. The suitable temperature for the bees to survive is 15 to 25 ° C, and the continuous high temperature and rainy weather in South Korea this summer will cause the bees to stop working, and the continuous rain will make it impossible for the bees to collect honey, which threatens the entire bee colony.
The picture shows the beekeepers releasing bees
Wei Lihua analysis:
According to media disclosures, the collective "disappearance" of Korean bees is more likely to be affected by local high temperature weather. In high temperature weather, bees will stop collecting honey, continuous water collection and fan cooling will lead to bees to consume a lot of energy, not only affect the bee food supply and larval feeding, but also easy to cause diseases and insect pests, resulting in large-scale death of bee colonies.
In addition, the continuous high temperature weather also has an impact on the honey source, when the outdoor temperature reaches more than 35 ° C, the water evaporation of the honey source plant will increase, resulting in a decrease in nectar.
Bees collectively "disappear"
It has a greater impact on plant pollination
According to statistics
More than 80% of crops require bees to pollinate
In fact
With the decline of wild insect species and populations
Artificially farmed bees pollinate
Many insect-borne plants are key factors in increasing yield and efficiency
They do not only pollinate artificially grown agroforestry crops
They will also go to the mountains with the beekeepers
Pollinate wild weeds and trees
This improves the probability of plant survival and reproduction
As an important link in the ecological chain
The economic benefits of bee pollination
It is 10 to 15 times higher than the output value of honey
So here's the problem
What are the impacts of meteorological factors on the beekeeping industry?
Since ancient times, the beekeeping industry has the characteristics of coming from flowers one by one and relying on the sky to "flow honey". Bees are social insects, and individuals and groups have different requirements for meteorological conditions.
The bee colony regulates the temperature and humidity in the nest by consuming food, and the beekeeper needs to create conditions suitable for the life of the bees according to its demand for meteorological conditions and changes in external meteorological conditions, reduce its energy consumption, and promote the healthy growth of the bee colony.
The picture shows beekeepers demonstrating honey cutting to the staff
The flowering and nectar of honey-derived plants are also closely related to meteorological conditions.
By studying the relationship between the flowering period and honey abundance of honey source plants and meteorological conditions, meteorological experts can make predictions about the flowering and honey production of honey source plants, and then help beekeepers choose the bee farm bee release route, thereby improving honey production.
"Bee growth and development and their activities are extremely sensitive to environmental temperatures, humidity, light, wind and other factors." Wei Lihua said that as a variable temperature animal, the most suitable living temperature for bees is 15 °C to 25 °C, and the safety critical temperatures of medium bees and Italian bees with larger breeding areas in mainland China are 10 °C and 14 °C, respectively.
When the temperature is lower than the above amount, the bees will gradually freeze; Above 40 °C, the bees will basically stop collecting honey.
When the humidity is too large, the nectar is not easy to concentrate, and the bees that go out to collect powder also face the risk that their wings are too wet to fly; Too little humidity can seriously affect the growth and development of eggs, larvae and pupae.
In addition, the influence of light and wind on bees can not be ignored, light can stimulate their attendance, no wind or breeze weather is most suitable for bees to fly. When the wind speed exceeds 4.2 m/s, the bees stop flying spontaneously; When the wind reaches 6.7 m/s, it is difficult to fly for a long time.
How does the meteorological department serve beekeepers?
In recent years, the demand for meteorological services in the beekeeping industry has been increasing, and with the gradual improvement of the status of the beekeeping industry, some large beekeeping counties in the mainland have also successively carried out special meteorological services for beekeepers.
In the critical season of bee production and reproduction, the meteorological department will do a good job of refined long-term, medium-term and short-term monitoring and analysis, as well as phenological monitoring and flowering period prediction of honey source plants.
In the Xiuyan Wetland Ecological Agricultural Park in Anshan City, Liaoning Province, bees are collecting honey Photo/Zhang Xijuan
"In Dangyang, Hubei Province, the demand for meteorological services for beekeepers is mainly medium- and long-term forecasts, mainly in the quarterly report." Zhu Daohua said that the local meteorological department will release early warning information through the national emergency early warning information platform, which is also one of the important means of serving beekeepers.
The rapeseed cultivation area in Dangyang is as high as 380,000 mu, which is the main source of honey powder in the local area. In recent years, the Municipal Meteorological Bureau has also strengthened the phenological observation and flowering period prediction of honey source crops, especially the flowering period prediction of rape flowers, jujube flowers and linden trees, effectively improving the amount of honey collected by bees.
In Changxing County, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, the staff of the Meteorological Bureau collected the contact information of major local bee industry households. In case of severe weather, timely reminders such as "Huinong Express" will be used.
If a cloudy day or temperature is predicted to be below 10 °C, the beekeeper will be reminded to be "tight frame" to keep the hive dark and ensure that there are more bees than the spleen, which can prevent the bees from leaving the nest and promote the queen to lay eggs quickly.
The picture shows the staff of the Changxing County Meteorological Bureau going to the beekeeping base to conduct field research
Meteorological experts said
Korean bees collectively "disappeared" with
Local weather and climate conditions are related
And in the long run
The impact of climate change on the beekeeping industry
Indeed, it should not be underestimated
On the one hand
The meteorological department will continue to innovate technical means
and how to serve
Guide beekeepers to respond scientifically and rationally to climate anomalies
On the other hand
It also needs to be strengthened by the whole society
Awareness of curbing climate change
After all, if all the bees in the world suddenly "disappeared"
For crops and ecosystems as a whole
It will all be difficult to reverse
The Great Crisis
Produced by China Meteorological News
Author/Editor: Wang Wan
Expert consultants: Wei Lihua, deputy director of the Meteorological Bureau of Changxing County, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, and Zhu Daohua, director of the Meteorological Bureau of Danyang City, Hubei Province
Image: All provided by respondents except for annotations
Review: Duan Haoshu