ABSTRACT
Chapters 1 and 2 have provided an overview of the contributions of honey bees to pollination as well as an introduction to the issues of pollinator decline and colony collapse disorder, including some of the factors affecting pollinators worldwide. In this chapter, we extend these topics by further highlighting specific contributions of managed honey bees and wild bees to pollination services in agricultural systems, a key benefit to humans as a result of responsible land-management practices. As it is important to understand what must be conserved, we provide information on the cast of characters-common types of bees and their general biology, including brief abstracts of the most common families of bees. Examples are given from the scientific literature regarding the positive relationships of least-affected landscapes and wild bee abundances and diversity. A biological and ecological basis is emphasized to foster an understanding of the essential interacting components-the bees and their altered and diminishing habitat resources. Information provided should support a basic foundation to develop strategies for biodiversity conservation and sustainable ecosystem services for the production of human goods and services, which is especially important for enterprises that directly or indirectly depend on pollinators. Like all insects, bees have persisted for millions of years, yet extensive changes to terrestrial landscapes by modern humans and irresponsible environmental
practices are leading to some alarming downward trends in pollinator communities,1 with the capacity for pollinator shortages to result in economic risk to direct and indirect crop sectors.2 We are yet to understand fully how future changes to pollinator biodiversity worldwide will manifest broadly in natural ecosystems, for example long-term or chronic effects on pollinator-plant networks, broader food webs, water, air and soil quality, and other benefits humans receive from ecosystems. We do know, however, that bees are an essential contributor to the successful reproduction of most of the world’s flowering plants, a component of both the natural and human-modified world that is vital to humans.
