/PRNewswire/ Nikon Instruments Inc. today unveiled the winners of the 12th annual Nikon Small World in Motion Video Competition. This year s first place.
Eduardo E. Zattara
The number of bee species recorded worldwide has been sharply decreasing since the 1990s.
Eduardo Zattara and Marcelo Aizen at the National University of Comahue in Argentina analysed how many wild bee species are observed each year as recorded in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility – a publicly available platform where researchers and citizens can record sightings of bee species.
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They found that there were a quarter fewer species reported between 2006 and 2015, as compared with the records we have from before 1990.
The decline is especially alarming considering the number of bee records in this database has increased by around 55 per cent since 2000, so it isn’t down to a lack of observations.
Since the 1990s, up to 25% of reported bee species have disappeared from scientific records, suggesting a global decline in bee diversity.
This photo shows a giant Patagonian bumblebee (Bombus dahlbomii). Four decades ago, these bees were abundant in Chile and Argentina, but now they have become an uncommon sight. (Credit: Eduardo E. Zattara)
(CN) Since the 1990s, up to 25% of reported bee species have disappeared from scientific records, suggesting a global decline in bee diversity, according to new research published on Friday.
A study published in the journal One Earth detailed the loss of bee species.
While their disappearance does not prove whether these species of pollinators are extinct, it indicates that at least some bee species have become too rare to be routinely observed in their natural habitats, say scientists at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) in Argentina.