scientific reports

Examining The Decline Of Honey Bees | Earth Wise

December 28, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

For many years, scientists have been sounding the alarm on the global struggle of pollinators. Many of the invertebrate pollinator species, such as bees and butterflies, are facing extinction. And since 75% of the world’s food crops depend on pollination to some extent, the decline of pollinators poses a major threat to global food security.

Honey bees are among the struggling pollinators. Over the past 14 years, bee colonies have been disappearing at an alarming rate in what is known as the “colony collapse disorder.”

In an effort to understand why, scientists have often focused their research on environmental stressors, such as parasites, pesticides, and disease. But according to new research by entomologists from the University of Maryland, honey bee life spans are simply 50% shorter today than they were 50 years ago. In the study, which was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers found that honey bees kept in a controlled, laboratory environment lived half as long as honey bees did in the 1970s. This is the first study to show that genetics – as opposed to environmental stressors – may be influencing the broader trends seen in the beekeeping industry.

When the researchers modeled the effect of their findings on a beekeeping operation, they found that the resulting loss rates were about 33%. This is similar to the average overwinter and annual loss rates reported by beekeepers during the past 14 years.

The next step is for researchers to compare trends in honey bee life spans across the U.S. and in other countries to see if there are differences in bee longevity.

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Honey Bee Lifespans are 50% Shorter Today Than They Were 50 Years Ago

Helping Agriculture’s Helpful Honey Bees

Photo, posted June 23, 2007, courtesy of Susan E. Ellis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Caribbean Coral Reefs Under Siege | Earth Wise

January 4, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Coral reefs around the world have been suffering from warming seas and increasing acidification, both a result of human activity. In the Caribbean, a new threat has emerged in the form of invasive algae.

New research published in Scientific Reports explains how an aggressive, crust-like alga is overgrowing shallow reefs and taking the place of coral that was damaged by powerful storms that exposed areas of the undersea rock where corals grew.

Researchers from Oxford University, the Carnegie Institution, and California State University Northridge have been studying these peyssonnelid algal crusts, or PACs, for several years in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The PAC has been out-competing coral larvae for surface space and then growing over the existing reef architecture, greatly damaging delicate reef ecosystems.

New corals actually prefer to settle on crusty surfaces created by a different type of algae called crustose algae, or CCA. CCA acts as guideposts for coral larvae by producing biochemical signals as part of a microbial community that entice baby coral to affix itself.

In contrast, the destructive PAC algae exclude coral settlement. The researchers determined that the microbial community associated with PAC algae is deployed to deter grazing from fish and other marine creatures. Unfortunately, it also deters coral.

Fragile coral ecosystems are already under assault by environmental pollution and global warming. Now, in the aftermath of powerful hurricanes like Irma and Maria, algal crusts are taking over reef communities and posing an existential threat to Caribbean corals.

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An unusual microbiome characterises a spatially-aggressive crustose alga rapidly overgrowing shallow Caribbean reefs

Photo, posted January 11, 2015, courtesy of Falco Ermert via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A New Problem For New York Apples | Earth Wise

August 6, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

New York is the second largest apple-producing state in the country, trailing only Washington state. New York averages nearly 30 million bushels of apples annually from approximately 600 commercial growers. The apple industry supports 10,000 direct agricultural jobs as well as 7,500 indirect jobs involved with fruit handling, distribution, marketing and exporting.

Thus, there is considerable concern about the recent discovery by Cornell plant pathologists of a new fungal pathogen that causes bitter rot disease in apples. They also found a second related fungus that is known to cause rot disease in other fruits but has now been found for the first time in apples. The study was published in early July in the journal Scientific Reports.

Both of these pathogens belong to the genus Colletotichrum, which contains 189 species of fungi that cause devastating rot diseases in multiple fruit crops, including bananas, strawberries, citrus, avocados, papayas, mangoes and apples.

Unless protective measures are taken in a timely manner, apple losses from bitter rot in New York state can average up to 25% per year. Some organic farms have lost essentially all of their crop at times. Bitter rot also can destroy up to 5% of marketable fruit in post-harvest storage.

The Cornell study of samples from eight New York counties found both the Colletotrichum chrysophilum fungus, that had not been found in apples before, and a newly-discovered fungus that they named Colletotrichum noveboracense, after the Latin name for New York State.

The researchers plan to work with other plant pathologists and apple breeders to identify possible genes that confer natural resistance to Colletotrichum fungi that can be bred into apple cultivars.

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Scientists identify new pathogen in NY apples

Photo, posted October 12, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

More Fake Fish News

November 20, 2017 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There has been quite a bit of news in recent years about the mislabeling of fish sold in markets and restaurants. One study a few years ago concluded that 1/3 of fish sold is not what it is labeled to be. Much of the practice is economic fraud: substituting cheaper, easier-to-find fish for rarer, more valuable types. For example, the study found that fish sold as red snapper was almost always not what it claimed to be. But cheating paying customers is not the only problem associated with the misidentification of fish.

[Read more…] about More Fake Fish News

Powering Fuel Cells With Wastewater

March 22, 2016 By WAMC WEB

There are many renewable energy sources to be exploited. Solar and wind power justifiably get the most attention, but they are not the only game in town. There is a growing sustainability movement to capture energy from various kinds of waste, including even the wastewater we flush down the toilet.