There could be trouble for the nation’s food crops. Rebecca Williams reports researchers say some important pollinators are in decline in North America:
Transcript
There could be trouble for the nation’s food crops. Rebecca Williams reports researchers say some important pollinators are in decline in North America:
Without bees, hummingbirds and bats, many plants can’t reproduce.
A new report from the National Academy of Sciences says some of these pollinators are in trouble. Especially honeybees – their numbers have been dropping since the 1980s. That’s partly because non-native parasites are attacking the bees.
Allison Snow is an author of the report.
“Pollinators are so important for plant reproduction, for example: pumpkins and cranberries, almonds, strawberries, and in addition pollinators are important in the natural world because most flowering plants and shrubs and trees are visited by pollinators.”
Snow says diseases, parasites and habitat loss are some of the threats to pollinators. She says much more research is needed, especially on the smallest pollinators that tend to fly under the radar.
For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.