You are almost certainly familiar with the expression “as busy as a bee”, but not everybody appreciates just how busy bees and other pollinators are. Modern life is increasingly disconnected from nature and many people barely even notice bees going about their vital work, flying tirelessly from flower to flower. So, today, to mark World Bee Day, let’s look more closely at how pollinating insects behave.
Nature establishes relationships between species and organisms, forming a very complex network where often great-interconnected nodes appear. They are called 'hubs'. But humans also create this kind of networks, such as airports as nodes and flights as connections.
To Nacho and Marc.
A study finds that high temperatures and low rainfall cause a timing mismatch between the flowering period of plants and the time of flight of butterflies. The moments of maximum florescence and butterfly abundance are separated by a mean time of 70 days, increasing in years with marked drought.
New research finds that as climate change increases ozone levels, pollinators will have a harder timing finding plants that feed them. That’s going to be a problem for the bees that pollinate a third of the world’s food supply. Flowers and other plants rely on microscopic scent molecules to attract the bees and other pollinators that feed on them.
A study published in the journal Biochemical Systematics and Ecologyand carried out by a team of CREAF researchers has shown that pollination by insects increases emissions of the molecules that give flowers their odors. Flower fragrances are needed to attract insects and guarantee the exchange of pollen with other flowers.
