Ms. Bowie- Science 10 Sustainability of Ecosystems Page 1 of 6

Ms. Bowie- Science 10 Sustainability of Ecosystems Page 1 of 6

Vanishing of the Bees

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-JjQH_HUHQ

Name: ________________________________________ Date: _________________________________

Please answer the questions below as you watch the documentary "Vanishing of the Bees".

1) Bees arrived on Earth _____ ___________________ years before man.

2) They live in ____________________ of hives of _______________ where they raise their young are store __________________.

3) Bees make ________________________ by collecting _______________________ from flowers.

4) One of the most important tasks in nature is _________________________________________, which is carried out largely by bees.

5) Pollination allows plants to ________________________________________. Apologies for Simon Buxton and his views on bees and pollination!

6) _____________% of all fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs and flowers are pollinated by honey bees.

7) Unfortunately, the bees are ______________________________________ in huge numbers.

8) What will happen to agriculture if the bees go away? ___________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

9) List a few crops that will remain if the bees are gone? ______________________, _______________________ & ________________________________________.

10) _____________ in every 3 bites of food depends on honey bees! WIthout bees most of the food we eat will disappear.

11) Luckily we still have cows and other animals to eat.... but wait.... what effect would the disappearance of bees have on the animals? Why? _________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

12) What does the narrator mean when she says the "bees are a modern canary in the coal mine"? ___________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

13) Dave Hackenberg and his son are Pennsylvania Beekeepers. They truck their bees around the US to help fertilize crops such as _____________________ groves in California, _______________________ orchards in Pennsylania and ________________________________ fields in Maine.

14) What is happening to Dave Hackenberg's bees? _________________________________________________________.

15) The disease that describes the disappearance of the bees is known CCD or __________________ ______________ Disorder.

16) Three symptoms of Colony collapse Disorder (CCD), other than a hive empty of working adult bees include:

A) ______________________________________________________________

B) ______________________________________________________________

C) ______________________________________________________________

17) By cutting bees in half and comparing healthy bees with ones from a CCD hive, they see evidence of some sort of _________________________________ suppression.

18) Researchers have also found crystal arrays in bee tissue, evidence of a ____________________________. They have seen white nodules in the bees, too.

19) Within _________ hours a hive can go from full (3000-5000 bees) to completely empty. The bees simply disappeared!

20) Are scientists able to test most of the bees from a CCD hive? Why or why not? _______________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

21) A number of suspects were investigated as being the cause of CCD. These include:

A) The varowa _________________: Parasites that feed on the __________________ of the bees, transmit ____________________________ and lay eggs in the same chambers as the _______________ _________.

B) A fungal ________________________: A bacteria that affects the bee's _______________________ leaving them too weak to forage.

C) Israelis acute paralysis __________________: found in a large number of CCD hives.

Which of these seems to be the primary cause of Colony Collapse Disorder? __________________________________

22) A number of other ideas have been suggested, including: The rapture (AKA - end of the world), Russians who implanted ________________ in the bees and were then killing them with ________________________ from satellites, ___________________ phones (blackberry's - hilarious!) , genetically modified _____________________ (but this has not been shown conclusively as BT corn toxins have not been found in CCD bees).

23) Bee keepers are able to maintain fairly high numbers of bees so far by using a method known as ________________ where they divide the colony in half and add a new queen to one of the new colonies. Since the bees reproduce quickly this has helped prevent total collapse of global colonies. This can only help for awhile though, something must be done to stop CCD.

24) Honeybees from a single hives can pollinate over _______________ thousand flowers in a single day.

25) The value of honey bee pollination is up to $ ________ billion per year in the US alone.

26) Bee keep income is only about ______% from honey and _______% from selling their bee's services as pollinators.

27) Gunther, an organic bee keeper, is concerned with the treatment of the ________________.

28) Commercial bee keepers regularly kill a colony's queen and then introduce a new one in a cage for awhile. Why does the need Queen need the cage? ____________________________________________________________________ Another practice in commercial operations is the artificial insemination of the Queen. This is thought to weaken the ____________________ pool. As you watch the process, what words come to you mind? _____________________

29) Why does Gunther think that removing nectar and honey from the hive and replacing it with sugar water a problem: _______________________________________________________________________________________________

30) Honey was used as a _____________________________________ in ancient Egypt, Greece and other areas.

31) All the worker bees are __________________________ and make up __________% of the population. There are only a _______________________ of male bees, known as ________________________. There only job is to __________ with the Queen. There is _______________ Queen per hive.

32) What is a monoculture farm crop? ____________________________________________________________. Monocultures are bad for bees because _______________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________

33) Monocultures also require a lot of support to keep down the pests, deadly chemicals (pesticides). Chemical warfare materials were transformed into chemical pesticides. These pesticides killed bees as well.

At one time, the highly toxic chemical, DDT (now banned worldwide) was used to prevent the spread of Polio, a disease that attacked children causing paralysis. Those early pesticides were known as topical pesticides.

34) Then came the systemic pesticides that are added to the water or seed coatings and then become part of the plants themselves, including in the nectar & pollen. Even though these chemicals in the nectars don't kill the adult bees could they still be a problem to bee colonies? Explain: _________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

35) What affects do neo-nicontinide systemic pesticides widely used in the 2000's have on insects? __________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

36) French bee keepers looked closely at the behaviour of bees on organic sunflowers and those on Gaucho (a systemic pesticide made by Bayer - the same people who make medicines) treated sunflowers. What did they observe: ______

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

37) European beekeepers have convinced their governments to ban Bayer produced systemic pesticides. However, it has not been possible to convince the government in the US.

What does EPA represent? ________________________________________________________________________

What is the job of the EPA in the US? ________________________________________________________________

What major problems are the US beekeepers finding with the methods of the EPA? __________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

38) What is the danger of using different types of pesticides on the same crops? _________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

39) How are pesticides affecting salmon stocks? ____________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

40) In what way is CCD an indicator of the unsustainability of food systems for the Earth? __________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name: ___________________________________________________ Date ____________________________

Using your knowledge about the plight of the bees, complete the following. Add information of the causes and effects of bee decline. Add more bubbles and sub-bubbles off the other existing bubbles to add details to the story of the bees:

Sustainability Project #1

Increasing Sustainable Food Systems one Bee at a Time!

Name: ________________________________________________ Date _______________________

Using your knowledge about the plight of the bees, develop a campaign to improve the plight of the bees and therefore improve sustainability of food systems. Some options include:

1. Create a poster campaign to increase public awareness about the plight of bees & what that will mean to our future!

2. Create a presentation to explain to people about the plight of bees & what that will mean to our future!

3. Create a song to increase public awareness about the plight of bees & what that will mean to our future!

4. Create a youth news broadcast/documentary film to increase public awareness about the plight of bees & what that will mean to our future!

5. Plan a school landscape garden (including specific types of flowers to be included)with a proposal letter to our school, school board, Cole Harbour Foundation to increase public awareness about the plight of bees & what that will mean to our future!

6. Create a proposal including background research for an apiary in our neighbourhood.