Bioenergy Demand Competing With Food Production For Land Availability

Bioenergy is energy that comes from biological or organic sources. It is a renewable source of energy. Bioenergy is also the same as biofuel.

Bioenergy comes from the processing or direct use of organic material called biomass. This biomass comes from plant and animal matter. Dead trees, branches, tree stumps, yard, animal waste, and even municipal solid waste are sources of biomass. In the case of old wood, simply burning it for heat is an example of bioenergy at work.

Honey Bees Adapt And Evolve To Reduce Infection of Parasitic Mite, Varroa Destructor

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a serious problem plaguing beekeepers. Honeybee hives seem to die out for no apparent reason. Factors suspected to cause colony collapse disorder range from pesticides, climate change, and even electromagnetic waves.

With colony collapse disorder, the economic and agricultural damage it causes run up to billions of dollars. About 30% of the global food supply rely on the honeybees through pollination. Crops such as almonds, blueberries, watermelon, and apples are just few that heavily rely on honeybee pollination. And with beehives dying it out by the thousands year in and year out, scientists are scrambling to find a solution to this problem.

One prevalent factor that is gaining attention and long suspected to be a factor for CCD are parasitic mites. These are small insects that feed off on the honeybee, living inside it and even laying eggs on the eggs of the bees (larvae) or the bees themselves.

One reason that parasites may cause CCD is because a honeybee hive would normally die out because the queen bee has died. But with CCD, the queen bee is still present and the bee eggs are left unattended. Honeybees never leave the hive when there are bee larvae still present.

Although scientists have one time or another zeroed in on a valid reason for CCD, further research have failed to recreate and duplicate any observed findings. This leaves CCD an open mystery up to now.

Honey bees fight back against Varroa

The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is a major contributor to the recent mysterious death of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology finds that specific proteins, released by damaged larvae and in the antennae of adult honey bees, can drive hygienic behavior of the adults and promote the removal of infected larvae from the hive.

V. destructor sucks the blood (hemolymph) of larval and adult bees leaving them weakened and reducing the ability of their immune systems to fight off infections. Not that honey bees have strong immune systems in the first place since they have fewer immunity genes than solitary insects such as flies and moths. These tiny mites can also spread viral disease between hosts. This double onslaught is thought to be a significant contributor to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

No Evidence Neonicotinoid Pesticides Cause Bees Colony Collapse Disorder

Since 2006, beekeepers have noticed something wrong with the hives of honeybees they maintain. The colonies of bees were slowly disappearing. This phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and its cause is still a mystery.

CCD is different from a colony dying out because the queen bee has expired or is no longer present. With CCD, the queen is still alive and present and the capped brood (bee eggs and larve) are still unhatched. This is peculiar because bees never leave the hive until the brood has hatched.

Colony Collapse Disorder is a global phenomenon. Countries experiencing CCD are Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Bee hives in Switzerland and Germany also are suffering from CCD in a lesser extent and there are reports that Taiwan is affected as well.

Although crops such as corn, wheat and rice are wind pollinated, fruits and vegetables are dependent on honeybee pollination. 80% of all flowering plants rely on honeybee pollination.

CCD is a very serious matter. Honeybees are responsible for more than 30% of the world's food. Pollination by bees is heavily relied on by agricultural crops and the number of bee colonies has fallen by 45 percent in the last 60 years. The United States has resorted to importing bees from Australia, something not done since the 1920s.

Theories abound on the exact reason for CCD such as malnutrition, pathogens and immunodeficiencies, mites and parasites, fungus, pesticides, beekeeping practices, and even electromagnetic radiation created by power lines along agricultural land. But these remain theories. After six years of extensive research and observation, the mystery still lingers and scientists are still baffled.

Pesticides not yet proven guilty of causing honeybee declines

The impact of crop pesticides on honeybee colonies is unlikely to cause colony collapse, according to a paper in the journal Science today (20 September 2012). More research is now needed to predict the impact of widely-used agricultural insecticides, called neonicotinoids, on honeybee populations.

UK scientists from the University of Exeter and Food and Environment Agency highlight flaws in previous research (published in Science, April 2012) that predicted that neonicotinoids could cause honeybee colony collapse. Neonicotinoids are among the most widely-used agricultural insecticides and honeybees ingest residues of the pesticides as they gather nectar and pollen from treated plants.

The previous research has been cited by scientists, environmentalists and policy-makers as evidence of the future impact of these pesticides on honeybees. It is likely that the research was instrumental in the French government's recent decision to ban the use of thiamethoxam, a neonicotinoid that is the active ingredient of Cruiser OSR, a pesticide produced by the Swiss company Syngenta.