Are Commercial Honeybees Making Wild Bees Sick?"

Question

by Berly McCoy

If human-managed bees and bee-friendly flowers are acting as hotspots for pathogens, keeping more bees and planting more flowers may be contributing to the steep losses in commercial pollinators seen in the U.S. each year, as well as fueling the decline of wild bees. The more that bees are transported and concentrated for larger-scale pollination events, the more opportunities for diseases to spread.

And it’s not just a one-way street.

“It’s likely the transmission is going both ways,” said Scott McArt, a pollinator ecologist at Cornell University who was not involved in the study. Even if diseases in commercial bees are eliminated, new infections from the wild bee population, which are known to harbor pathogens, could spill back into managed populations, making disease eradication even tougher than it is now.
From the urban gardener to the rural farmer, people are encouraged to grow “bee-friendly” plants.
“But in some cases, you might actually be increasing disease levels when you plant those flowers,” said Sheila Colla, a conservation biologist at York University who was not involved in the study. “Maybe we need to have a [buffer] area without flowers to stop diseases from spreading to wild bees.”
Nobody is suggesting we all stop planting flowers altogether. “We know that habitat loss is already a big problem for bees,” said Alger. Instead, she is now investigating if increasing plant diversity or culling certain plants could help decrease disease transmission.
She added that beekeepers and farmers need to take a long, hard look at how they are managing bees.

What text evidence supports the statement that human actions are harming bees? Select the 2 correct answers.

A) The author claimed beekeepers and farmers need to think more deeply about how they are managing bees.
B) A researcher claimed habitat loss is already a major issue for bees.
C) A pollinator ecologist claimed disease transmission goes both ways between human-managed bees and wild bees.
D) A conservation biologist claimed that planting bee-friendly flowers might actually increase disease levels.
E) The author claimed beekeepers and farmers need to think more deeply about how they are managing bees.

I believe that the 2 correct answers are: B and D

Answer 1

You are correct in identifying that options B and D support the statement that human actions are harming bees.

• B) The statement regarding habitat loss acknowledges that it is a significant issue for bees, highlighting the impact of human activities on bee populations.

• D) The conservation biologist's claim that planting bee-friendly flowers might actually increase disease levels directly indicates that human actions, such as planting these flowers, may be contributing to harm.

Although option A, which mentions that beekeepers and farmers need to reconsider their management practices, can also imply harm, it doesn't point as directly to the negative impact of human actions as options B and D do. Therefore, your selection of B and D as the correct answers is accurate.