Professor to discuss the importance of pollinators
Published on Tue., November 4th, 2008
Imagine a world with fewer apples, strawberries, peaches and almonds.
Orley “Chip” Taylor, professor of ecology, will talk about the possibility of that world in his lecture “What’s Happening to Our Honey Bees, Bumble Bees and Other Pollinators?” at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Natural History Museum in Dyche Hall.
“We simply wouldn’t have a lot of those crops in good conditions or great abundance if we did not have honeybees,” he said. “They are a crucial element to efficient agriculture production.”
Orley "Chip" Taylor has been working with bees since he was 14 years old and has been studying the genetics of killer bees for the past 22 years. Taylor will present the lecture "What's Happening to Our Honey Bees, Bumble Bees and Other Pollinators?" at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Natural History Museum in Dyche Hall.
Photo by Alex Bonham-Carter
Although Taylor’s research focuses on monarch butterflies, he has studied killer bees of South America for 22 years.
Taylor said the goal of the lecture was to raise awareness of bees’ and other pollinators’ roles in humans’ food system and ecology. He will focus on honeybees and pollinators used in agriculture and native bees and pollinators that maintain biodiversity.
In addition to producing honey, honeybees are used to pollinate crops to produce seeds and fruits. Taylor said the United States was one of the most dependent countries in the world on the use of bees for pollination of crops.
Taylor said he would also discuss the reason for the decline in the population of honeybees. He said several factors caused the decline, including management issues of the honeybees industry. He said the number of honeybee colonies were not enough for the amount of pollination needed in the country. As a result, bees were moved to various locations across the country by trucks, and many of them were lost during the transportation.
Along with agricultural bees, Taylor will discuss other native bees and pollinators, including beetles and flies, which play important roles in the pollination of native vegetation. He said the diversity of plants and pollinators were interdependent each other, and if some died then others would too.
“Everything depends ultimately on the pollinators and the diversity of plants that they pollinate,” Taylor said. “In a natural setting, if we don’t have that diversity, then the system becomes simplified to the point where, quite frankly, it becomes boring.”
He said maintaining and restoring habitats of plants would attract pollinators and vice versa. He said it would be important for humans to realize that humans were also part of the interdependence and responsible for natural habitats.
“We have to be aware of all the things we are doing as a species and having impacts on,” he said. The impact on pollinators can be quite significant because if that impact is significantly negative, it comes back to have negative impacts on us.”
Jen Humphrey, communication director of the museum, said the University had a long tradition in studying bees, and the audience should enjoy Taylor’s lecture. She also said the live bee hives were one of the most popular exhibitions at the natural museum.
— Edited by Becka Cremer
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