Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Pollinator decline" in English language version.
It is difficult to determine whether North American pollinator species are declining, and no less challenging is determining the causes of putative declines or local extirpations. Many explanations have been invoked to account for declines in pollinator populations in North America, including, among others, exposure to pathogens, parasites, and pesticides; habitat fragmentation and loss; climate change; market forces; intra- and inter-specific competition with native and invasive species; and genetic alterations. Careful evaluation of the literature allows some causes to be assigned, but explanations are ambiguous or elusive for other species losses. ... The best evidence of specific pollinator decline is seen in the western honey bee, Apis mellifera L., the primary commercial pollinator of agricultural crops in North America and the most widely used, actively managed pollinator in the world. The population losses among honey bees are elucidated in a large body of literature...
[To] know whether or not a wholesale decline in flying pollinators ... is occurring across the world is very difficult, due to an insufficiency of geographically widespread and long-term data. Bees, as the best documented species, can be seen to be suffering from chronic exposure to a range of stressors, which include: a loss of abundance and diversity of flowers, and a decline in suitable habitat for them to build nests; long-term exposure to agrochemicals, including pesticides such as neonicotinoids; and infection by parasites and pathogens, many inadvertently spread by the actions of humans. [Climate] change may impact further on particular pollinators... Moreover, the co-operative element of various different stress factors should be noted; thus, for example, exposure to pesticides is known to diminish detoxification mechanisms and also immune responses, hence lowering the resistance of bees to parasitic infections. [For] wild non-bee insects – principally moths and butterflies – where data are available, the picture is also one of significant population losses. Alarmingly, a recent study in Germany indicated that a decline in the biomass of flying insects had occurred by 76% in less than three decades, as sampled in nature reserves across the country. Accordingly, to fully answer the question ... 'pollinator decline - an ecological calamity in the making?' will require many more detailed, more geographically encompassing, more species-inclusive, and longer-term studies, but the available evidence points to a clear 'probably', and the precautionary principle would suggest this is not a prospect we can afford to ignore.
Environmentalists hailed a 'victory for bees' today after the European Union voted for a ban on the nerve-agent pesticides blamed for the dramatic decline global bee populations. ... Dr Lynn Dicks, a research associate at the University of Cambridge, said that despite the contradictory studies, the EU was right to err on the side of caution. 'This is a victory for the precautionary principle, which is supposed to underlie environmental regulation,' she said.
It is difficult to determine whether North American pollinator species are declining, and no less challenging is determining the causes of putative declines or local extirpations. Many explanations have been invoked to account for declines in pollinator populations in North America, including, among others, exposure to pathogens, parasites, and pesticides; habitat fragmentation and loss; climate change; market forces; intra- and inter-specific competition with native and invasive species; and genetic alterations. Careful evaluation of the literature allows some causes to be assigned, but explanations are ambiguous or elusive for other species losses. ... The best evidence of specific pollinator decline is seen in the western honey bee, Apis mellifera L., the primary commercial pollinator of agricultural crops in North America and the most widely used, actively managed pollinator in the world. The population losses among honey bees are elucidated in a large body of literature...
[To] know whether or not a wholesale decline in flying pollinators ... is occurring across the world is very difficult, due to an insufficiency of geographically widespread and long-term data. Bees, as the best documented species, can be seen to be suffering from chronic exposure to a range of stressors, which include: a loss of abundance and diversity of flowers, and a decline in suitable habitat for them to build nests; long-term exposure to agrochemicals, including pesticides such as neonicotinoids; and infection by parasites and pathogens, many inadvertently spread by the actions of humans. [Climate] change may impact further on particular pollinators... Moreover, the co-operative element of various different stress factors should be noted; thus, for example, exposure to pesticides is known to diminish detoxification mechanisms and also immune responses, hence lowering the resistance of bees to parasitic infections. [For] wild non-bee insects – principally moths and butterflies – where data are available, the picture is also one of significant population losses. Alarmingly, a recent study in Germany indicated that a decline in the biomass of flying insects had occurred by 76% in less than three decades, as sampled in nature reserves across the country. Accordingly, to fully answer the question ... 'pollinator decline - an ecological calamity in the making?' will require many more detailed, more geographically encompassing, more species-inclusive, and longer-term studies, but the available evidence points to a clear 'probably', and the precautionary principle would suggest this is not a prospect we can afford to ignore.
[To] know whether or not a wholesale decline in flying pollinators ... is occurring across the world is very difficult, due to an insufficiency of geographically widespread and long-term data. Bees, as the best documented species, can be seen to be suffering from chronic exposure to a range of stressors, which include: a loss of abundance and diversity of flowers, and a decline in suitable habitat for them to build nests; long-term exposure to agrochemicals, including pesticides such as neonicotinoids; and infection by parasites and pathogens, many inadvertently spread by the actions of humans. [Climate] change may impact further on particular pollinators... Moreover, the co-operative element of various different stress factors should be noted; thus, for example, exposure to pesticides is known to diminish detoxification mechanisms and also immune responses, hence lowering the resistance of bees to parasitic infections. [For] wild non-bee insects – principally moths and butterflies – where data are available, the picture is also one of significant population losses. Alarmingly, a recent study in Germany indicated that a decline in the biomass of flying insects had occurred by 76% in less than three decades, as sampled in nature reserves across the country. Accordingly, to fully answer the question ... 'pollinator decline - an ecological calamity in the making?' will require many more detailed, more geographically encompassing, more species-inclusive, and longer-term studies, but the available evidence points to a clear 'probably', and the precautionary principle would suggest this is not a prospect we can afford to ignore.
[To] know whether or not a wholesale decline in flying pollinators ... is occurring across the world is very difficult, due to an insufficiency of geographically widespread and long-term data. Bees, as the best documented species, can be seen to be suffering from chronic exposure to a range of stressors, which include: a loss of abundance and diversity of flowers, and a decline in suitable habitat for them to build nests; long-term exposure to agrochemicals, including pesticides such as neonicotinoids; and infection by parasites and pathogens, many inadvertently spread by the actions of humans. [Climate] change may impact further on particular pollinators... Moreover, the co-operative element of various different stress factors should be noted; thus, for example, exposure to pesticides is known to diminish detoxification mechanisms and also immune responses, hence lowering the resistance of bees to parasitic infections. [For] wild non-bee insects – principally moths and butterflies – where data are available, the picture is also one of significant population losses. Alarmingly, a recent study in Germany indicated that a decline in the biomass of flying insects had occurred by 76% in less than three decades, as sampled in nature reserves across the country. Accordingly, to fully answer the question ... 'pollinator decline - an ecological calamity in the making?' will require many more detailed, more geographically encompassing, more species-inclusive, and longer-term studies, but the available evidence points to a clear 'probably', and the precautionary principle would suggest this is not a prospect we can afford to ignore.
Environmentalists hailed a 'victory for bees' today after the European Union voted for a ban on the nerve-agent pesticides blamed for the dramatic decline global bee populations. ... Dr Lynn Dicks, a research associate at the University of Cambridge, said that despite the contradictory studies, the EU was right to err on the side of caution. 'This is a victory for the precautionary principle, which is supposed to underlie environmental regulation,' she said.
[To] know whether or not a wholesale decline in flying pollinators ... is occurring across the world is very difficult, due to an insufficiency of geographically widespread and long-term data. Bees, as the best documented species, can be seen to be suffering from chronic exposure to a range of stressors, which include: a loss of abundance and diversity of flowers, and a decline in suitable habitat for them to build nests; long-term exposure to agrochemicals, including pesticides such as neonicotinoids; and infection by parasites and pathogens, many inadvertently spread by the actions of humans. [Climate] change may impact further on particular pollinators... Moreover, the co-operative element of various different stress factors should be noted; thus, for example, exposure to pesticides is known to diminish detoxification mechanisms and also immune responses, hence lowering the resistance of bees to parasitic infections. [For] wild non-bee insects – principally moths and butterflies – where data are available, the picture is also one of significant population losses. Alarmingly, a recent study in Germany indicated that a decline in the biomass of flying insects had occurred by 76% in less than three decades, as sampled in nature reserves across the country. Accordingly, to fully answer the question ... 'pollinator decline - an ecological calamity in the making?' will require many more detailed, more geographically encompassing, more species-inclusive, and longer-term studies, but the available evidence points to a clear 'probably', and the precautionary principle would suggest this is not a prospect we can afford to ignore.
