this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
434 points (90.5% liked)

Science Memes

10970 readers
2111 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
434
Bees (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
104 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You basically got it. European honey bees consume the already dwindling nectar and pollen resources for North American native pollinators. Furthermore, European honey bees are also worse at actually pollinating North American flowers because they did not co-evolve with the species we have here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They're problematic even in their native range because people keep too many of them and they compete with other important pollinators, often other bee species. Honey bees don't pollinate all species they take pollen and nectar from and those species are then not visited by their specialised pollinators, leading to decrease in numbers of both plants and pollinators.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Arent those conflicting statements? How can they be taking up all the pollen AND be worse pollinators?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

They are not conflicting but I can see how you might think that. Pollen is plant sperm. In order for pollination to occur many plants have special needs. The pollen has to be "picked up" and transferred to the female stigma. One example of how honeybees take nectar but don't pollinate flowers are flowers that require "buzz pollinating".

Hope that clears things up. Happy to answer anymore questions (I am just someone who is passionate about nature I'm not a professional or anything).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just because you waste 80% of the food you get doesn't mean you can't still be twice as fast as everyone else at getting new food!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Do the flowers get pollinated? That seems like the important part.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

They often don't. Honey bees are surprisingly good at collecting pollen of many plant species without transfering it to other flowers and pollinating them.