Bumblebees Are at Risk Around the World

Bumblebees are in trouble all around the world. This article comes from the UK. Here is a great site to get up to speed on what you can do to help, if we all do our part one person at a time it will make a difference.  http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/
Bumblebees are beautiful, hard working and incredibly important pollinators. In the last 70 years two species have become nationally extinct, and others are have declined dramatically. In short, bumblebees are in trouble...
Now imagine a different future, in which our towns and countryside are rich in colourful wildflowers and teeming with bees, other beneficial insects and a diversity of wildlife for everyone to enjoy...

Join today and help us create a colourful future

"Bumblebees are lovely little creatures - their bright stripes and gentle buzz bring colour and sound to our summer gardens. They are also very important because they pollinate our wildflowers and crops. Sadly things aren't going well and some species are threatened with extinction.  I'm really concerned by these declines and I'm pleased to support the work of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust."  Kate Humble, March 2009

To halt the recent dramatic declines, we urgently need to improve habitats. Everyone can play their part - gardeners, farmers, land managers, councils and governments can all help.
This website is packed with useful information, and includes pages to help you identify bumblebees, advice on how to garden or farm in a sensitive way, and surveys which you may like to take part in. We hope you enjoy the site.

Patterns of Widespread Decline in North American Bumble Bees

by
Sydney A. Cameron, Jeffrey D. Lozier, James P. Strange, Jonathan B. Kochb , Nils Cordesa, Leellen F. Solter, and Terry L. Griswold

Bumble bees (Bombus) are vitally important pollinators of wild plants and agricultural crops worldwide. Fragmentary observations, however, have suggested population declines in several North American species. Despite rising concern over these observations in the United States, highlighted in a recent National Academy of Sciences report, a national assessment of the geographic scope and possible causal factors of bumble bee decline is lacking. Here, we report results of a 3-y interdisciplinary study of changing distributions, population genetic structure, and levels of pathogen infection
in bumble bee populations across the United States. We compare current and historical distributions of eight species, compiling a database of >73,000 museum records for comparison with data from intensive nationwide surveys of >16,000 specimens. We show that
the relative abundances of four species have declined by up to 96% and that their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23– 87%, some within the last 20 y. We also show that declining populations have significantly higher infection levels of the microsporidian
pathogen Nosemabombi and lower genetic diversity compared with co-occurring populations of the stable (nondeclining) species. Higher pathogen prevalence and reduced genetic diversity are, thus, realistic predictors of these alarming patterns of decline in North America, although cause and effect remain uncertain.

The first author wishes me to point out that the bees have undergone reduction of genetic diversity (loss of genes because of shrinking populations), not inbreeding.

James C. Trager, Ph. D.

Biologist - Naturalist

Shaw Nature Reserve

P.O. Box 38

Gray Summit MO 63039

636-451-3512 ext. 6002