![]() ![]() Land covers with high-quality forage contain flowering plants that provide abundant and diverse nectar and nutritious pollen. Bees with access to high-quality forage better withstand other stressors. These stressors have a synergistic effect that better nutrition might alleviate. European foulbrood), pesticide exposure, apicultural mismanagement, long-distance transport, and decreased genetic diversity. These include limited floral resources, pests of insects (e.g. The health of honey bees is affected by numerous stressors. In that same year, honey bees produced over $385 million worth of honey and other products. In 2019, annual revenues from managed honey bees ( Apis mellifera) for pollination services in the United States were over $300 million. Bees are the predominant pollinators for a variety of specialty crops, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and oilseeds. pesticides), and increases in pests or diseases.Ĭrop pollination is an economically critical ecosystem service. pollination services), changes in land management (e.g. We discuss possible explanations for these non-land-cover-related honey yield declines, including changing economic conditions (e.g. Even when controlling for changes in land cover, we found that on average colonies in the study area experienced a 14% annual decline in honey yields. When our results are applied to known apiary locations across all of North Dakota (U.S.A.), we estimate a 2.5% (1.6 million USD) decline in 2012 honey yields due to land cover changes occurring between 20. Transitions from grassland to soybean (but not corn) were particularly detrimental to honey yields, potentially due to bee contact with pesticides within and around agricultural fields. ![]() We found that land cover changes from 2008 to 2012 caused an annual decline in honey yields of 0.9% in the study area. Here, we isolate land cover transitions and their effect on honey production at 160 commercial apiaries in the Northern Great Plains. Decreased availability of forage, as well as increased pesticide exposure, are important factors in the decline of honey bee health.
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