Bees and Biodiversity.

 

Without bees there would be no flowering plants, and without flowering plants there would be no bees. Without bees biodiversity would not be so great. Biodiversity is measured as the number of different plant and animal species found in a certain unit area. Biodiversity is highest in tropical forest areas and lowest in the Arctic. High biodiversity is related to the high age of the ecosystem, and a stable environment. A stable environment creates the possibility of development of specialization and use of narrow ecological niches. The explanation of the high biodiversity in tropical forests can be as the species’ efforts to avoid attack by diseases and pests. Both can be much more serious in a tropical forest biome with a constant supply of water, and a hot and stable temperature. The high diversity with its high specialization in pollination relationships can also be a danger for the forest. The specialist pollinator must have access to food all year round. Many of the smaller trees flower all year round or nearly all year, but the larger trees have blooming seasons. Some flower every year, others every third or fifth year, where all trees from the same species bloom at the same period and maybe even at the same hours. If the specialized bees loose their stable resources by tree cutting, they will not be there when the bigger trees require their pollination service. The reproduction of plants is simplest as vegetative reproduction – a new tree could just come from a root shoot. The new tree would then be genetically identical with the mother tree. Vegetative reproduction alone would be no problem if the environment were stable, but most environments are not stable over time, they change. It can be climatic changes, new diseases or pests. To be able to adapt to environmental changes there need to be genetically different plants. In that way there will always be some plants, which are better adapted than others because of special genetic constitutions. The only way to constantly mix the genes for the plants is by cross-pollination, where pollen from one plant is transported by bees to another so that the offspring become genetically different. In that way, there is a greater chance for at least some of the offspring to survive in the competition of life. In this we find the bees as one of the most important factors.