Entry 4
I revisited Arroyo Seco to collect picture of plants. There were many honey bees in the water and in the plants near the water. This was odd to me because the plants near the water were mostly vines, I thought that bees would only be interested in flowering plants for their pollen and nectar. I also found it odd that there were many bees in the water. I understand that bees need to drink water as well but the number is really odd. I suspect that there can be traces of nectar and pollen in the water that came from surrounding plants. But that is not likely because it is winter right now and hardly any flowers are blooming.
Aside from the bees, there were also a lot of flies near the water. This was odd because the water seemed the same from when we first visited but the number of flies and bees have hugely increased.
There was also a lack of insects compared to when we first visited. There were many different insects last time, mostly spiders, praying mantis, and blue-green sharpshooter. But this time we were only able to find a few extremely small spiders and around 2 blue-green sharpshooter, there was no praying mantis at all. There was also a lack of other insects like assassin bug which we were able to find last time. This can be due to the time of the year. When we last visited, it might have been the middle of fall but it is winter when I visited again.
The number of bees have been declining rapidly due to the use of pesticides. As stated, "Through it all, the loss of honeybees has continued apace, with an average of 30 percent of hives dying every year. Classic cases of CCD – in which the bees literally vanish – are now relatively uncommon. These days, beekeepers often find dead bees in or near the hive, implying that whatever is killing them is doing so acutely – or the colonies slowly dwindle until there is nothing left."We need to stop this from worsening as bees play an important part as pollinators. They basically build the food chain, they help spread pollen to different areas as they collect nectar. The plants and flowers then grow, providing food and shelter for other organisms and further build up the food chain. Without them, we will be losing a lot of plantations and hence severely disrupting the food chain which will ultimately affect humans as well.
Some other causes of the decline of bees is the change in land-use and global warming. As stated, " These studies show that a combination of habitat destruction, agricultural
intensification and the associated loss of floral resources, climate change and exposure to pesticides
and pathogens drives the loss of bee populations and may negatively affect the pollination services they provide." Humans are directly causing the decline of bees. It is our responsibility to resolve the issue because the decline of bees will affect plantations, animals, eventually humans will be affected as well.
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