Do you eat fruits and vegetables? What about nuts? If so, you can thank an insect pollinator, usually a honey bee. These small insects play a major role in pollinating the world’s plants, including those we eat regularly. They also increase our nation’s crop values each year by more than 15 billion dollars.
“You can bet that a majority of the fruits and vegetables that are in the produce aisle are there because some insect, most likely a bee, provided pollination services,” said USGS research ecologist Clint Otto.
However, critical honey bee and wild bee populations in the United States have been declining in recent years, creating concern about the future security of pollination services for agricultural crops.
Enter the USGS honey bee helpers. In a recent video, Otto, USGS biologist Matthew Smart, and their colleagues at the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center in Jamestown, North Dakota, discuss their research on land use and pollinator health in the northern Great Plains. This research will be useful in equipping land managers and policy makers with the best-available science to improve forage and habitat for pollinators in a part of the country that is undergoing rapid land-use change.
Continue reading at USGS.
Image via USGS.