There are many different cycles that living things interfere with, and develop. All living things, no matter how small, are a part of these crucial systems. When a species begins to die out, fade out, or disappear from a specific cycle, the entire system begins to shut down and it is tragically disrupted. The disappearance of Bees is a classic, tragic example of this disruption of cycles. Bees are both cause, and effect factors in the water, nitrogen, and carbon cycles.
Bees play an important role in the carbon cycle. Within the carbon cycle, carbon has to return to living organisms in order for it to be redistributed back into the atmosphere. The only way for this to happen, is through Photosynthesis. Photosynthesis can only occur if there are living plants. Bees pollinate plants to keep them alive, and to help them reproduce. Without bees, plants would not be pollinated, and carbon would not be able to re-enter living organisms.
Bees also play an important role in the nitrogen cycle. Much like the Carbon cycle, the Nitrogen cycle relies on plants. The roots of plants absorb the Nitrogen, and help to “fix” it so that it’s usable for other organisms. Bees are large pollinators to the plants that “fix” the nitrogen. Without this pollination, it will be more difficult for Nitrogen to find its way back into the food-cycle.
The Water cycle is also of importance to Bees. In the water cycle, water is evaporated, and then redistributed in different areas through precipitation. Without this water, plants wouldn’t be able to grow, and bee’s wouldn’t be able to carry out their pollination duties. This would ultimately disrupt the food cycle, and the reproduction of plants.
Bees effect many crucial cycles in our life. In the Carbon cycle, they pollinate plants and fodder to keep the carbon distributed back into living things. In the nitrogen cycle, Bees play the sam role as earlier. They pollinate the plants that absorb the Nitrogen in the soil. None of these things could happen without the effects of the water cycle. The constant evaporation, and precipitation makes it easier for plants to grow. Although these cycles are big, they’re all effected by one, tiny, dying-out species: the Honey Bee.
What are Biotic and abiotic factors?
For those who do not know what biotic and abiotic factors are they are basically living and non-living things. The word biotic refers to things that are living or organisms that take in nutrients such as us, animals or plants. Abiotic is the opposite so it refers to non-living thing or organisms that don’t take in any nutrients. An example of an abiotic object could be water as it does not take in nutrients and therefore is not alive. Another example of an abiotic could be a beehive. The beehive is not taking in nutrients from anything but is used by the bees to store nutrients.
Bees are biotic since they use nectar from flowers to make the honey, the nutrients, that they later eat.
They store their food (honey) in wax combs and force evaporate the honey ,which is mostly water, until it is about eighteen percent water and then they seal it with a wax cap.
What about bee populations?
Up until now there are about 20,000 known types of bees but however there are less bees than there was before. According to data from Netherlands, Europe, and Ireland, bee populations decreased by about fifty percent around 2007 and are still decreasing. You might say, “Well, why should I care? Bees only sting me every time I go to the park or camping.” The reason you should care is that bees aren’t just a nuisance that go around stinging people. They pollinate the flowers and make honey that many people and animals enjoy. According to ScienceDaily.com, over eighty percent of all the crops in Europe are pollinated by insects, the majority of them being bees. If all the bees were to die then there would be a lot of problems as bees play an important role in life. First off, there would be no pollination occurring so there would be less plants ,seeing that they pollinate many crops and plants, and that would mean a lot less air for us humans and other animals and would also decrease the amount of produce that the farmers would be able to grow and we may also starve. This would trouble many as then there would be less plants and the amount of available oxygen would decrease making it harder to sustain life on Earth. In addition to that, animals that ate honey would have to adapt to different diets or go extinct as the bees if they were unable to adapt to eating or couldn’t find sufficient food that their diets required. Now that you know how bees are important don’t you want to ensure that nothing bad happens to them so that nothing bad happens to us?
Are honey bees producers?
In the case of honey bees, they are not a producer but they do make honey. You may ask how this is possible. Think of it this way, honey bees get their honey as nectar from flowers and then they turn it into honey which they later consume. They do not make honey from water or the sun as plants do. Without nectars from flowers, bees would not be able to produce the honey that they need to maintain themselves. The bees make honey by making the nectar they retrieve into two types of sugars known as glucose and fructose. If the bees were able to make their own food from inorganic substances, they would not rely on the nectar from the flowers and therefor there would be no pollination. No pollination equals less flowers which can imply that the amount of oxygen in our atmosphere would decrease and we would be in a devastating situation.
What are autotrophs and heterotrophs?
Autotrophs are organisms that make their own food from inorganic substances. Trees, flowers, plankton (that some types of fish eat) are producers as they make their own food from inorganic substances such as sunlight. People and animals are heterotrophs, or organisms that consume nutrients from other organisms such as other consumers or producers. Another more specific example is bears which in the wild eat honey as part of their diet. Bears eat honey that the honey bees produce so that puts them in the category of heterotrophs or consumers as they can not make their own food. Also, humans eat honey that honey bees make so we also fall into the consumer category as we do not make our own food from inorganic substances as many plants do.
What are some honey uses?
Many people use honey as their sweetener for foods or liquids which is a way to avoid using sugar as some people have diabetes or like the taste of the honey and it is something that many people have found to be good for their health. Many refer to honey as nature’s sugar which is understandable as it is made of sugars.
Are honey bees decomposers?
Fungi is a type of decomposer but bees aren’t and here are some reasons why.
Honey bees are not decomposers as they are consumers, or organisms that eat other organisms form a produce. They only eat the honey that they make from the nectar of plants. Another reason why honey bees are not decomposers is because they are not an organism of decay. In other words, honey bees do not break down the remains of other organisms into substances that can be used by other members of the ecosystem.
Once a species becomes classified as, “endangered”, many people begin to fear for the effects of it’s extinction. Ecologically, extinction of even the most minute creature can disrupt many things in an ecosystem.The endangerment of Honey bees is no exception. Honeybee extinction, and even endangerment, effects the symbiotic relationships between organisms in multiple ways.
The first affected type of symbiosis, is predation. Honey bees are a large contributor to the food for secondary consumers. Many of these secondary consumers, such as birds, toads, and other insects, eat bees. A severe decline in the population of bees will cause these consumers to run out of food, and they will ultimately become endangered or extinct as well. This will jumpstart a chain reaction through the food chain. Soon, tertiary consumers will be at stake, as well.
The second affected type of symbiosis, is mutualism. Honey bees spend countless hours pollinating flowers and other vegetation. The pollination benefits the honeybees, and it benefits the plants. It helps the plants to reproduce, and it helps the honeybees create a successful hive. Without bees to help control the pollination of these plants, the plants will die out, as well.
Another affected type of symbiosis is commensalism. Honey bees create hives to house their colonies, reproduce, and create honey. The hives are often in areas, such as trees, that are not of harm to any organisms.The bees are able to benefit from the tree, or other location for a hive, and the organism that houses the hive is not effected negatively. Without the bees, the tree or hive location, would not have an alternative function or purpose.
The final affected type of symbiosis, is parasitism. Like many other organisms, honeybees have parasites as well. One specific parasite, called the “Nosema”, is actually one of the leading causes of honey bee disappearances. Although this parasite kills honey bees, it is still a provider for the ecosystem. Without bees to feed the Nosema, the Nosema would die out. This would cause another disruption of the food chains, and food webs in the world.
Symbiotic relationships are effected in multiple ways by the disappearance and possible extinction of honey bees. Predation is effected by the loss of certain vital food-chain elements. Mutualism between plants and honey bees is affected by the loss of bees, as well. Commensalism is altered by a decline in bees. Parasitism is effected because certain parasites will no longer have a host if bees go extinct. Bees are a vital piece to our symbiotic puzzle. They support and maintain many things that we as humans are not capable of. Without these crucial insects, our delicately intricate natural systems will suffer.
Bee Buzzing is a student led organization, which is why the first two topics have two different perspectives. To hear a simplified version of how Bees affect the food chain, read more.
(Source: trileyphoto.com, via timothyriley)
Bee buzzing is a student led organization. So, we have different persepctives on the same topic. To read a different perspective about how Bees are important to the surival of other species. Read more.
munich, germany
We all know that the food chain is a delicate system. What role does the bee have in the food chain? What would happen if the Bee suddenly died overnight? What would happen to our food chain?
Read more to find out
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