"Are Commercial Honeybees Making Wild Bees Sick?"

Question

by Berly McCoy

Everyone wants to save the bees. But as populations decline every year, we may be saving them to death.

Human efforts to breed more of these insects in artificial beehives and plant more flowers may seem the obvious way to stave off heavy losses.

New research shows the answer is not that clear cut, because viruses may be spilling over from commercial honeybee colonies into wild bee populations, according to a study from the University of Vermont published Wednesday in PLOS One.

Like honeybees, which are invaluable for agriculture, wild bumblebees also play a significant role in crop pollination. Though people are more familiar with honeybee die-offs — such as with colony collapse disorder — wild bumblebees have been struggling too. A handful of bumblebee species have declined by up to 96 percent in the U.S., according to the National Agricultural Library’s website.

The causes have been largely understudied, although pesticides, infectious disease and shrinking habitat due to climate change have been suspected, said Samantha Alger, an ecologist from the University of Vermont who led the new research.

Filling in one piece of the puzzle, the study revealed wild bumblebees pick up more viruses the closer they forage to managed honeybee colonies. But if bumblebees don’t venture into the commercial hives, how are they picking up viruses?

Flowers have been suspected as reservoirs for bee viruses, but no researcher had linked virus deposits on flowers to bumblebee infections in the wild until this study. And the results could have implications for how we lend our inter-species help.

What evidence from the text best supports the analysis that human actions are related to bumblebee decline?

(1 point)
Responses

the claim that people may be saving the bees to death
the claim that people may be saving the bees to death

the question about how wild bees pick up viruses if they do not enter managed honeybee colonies
the question about how wild bees pick up viruses if they do not enter managed honeybee colonies

the fact that people have tried to breed more bees
the fact that people have tried to breed more bees

the study that shows viruses may be spilling over from commercial hives to wild bees

Answer 1

The best evidence from the text that supports the analysis that human actions are related to bumblebee decline is:

the study that shows viruses may be spilling over from commercial hives to wild bees.

This response directly links human practices, such as maintaining commercial honeybee colonies, to negative impacts on wild bee populations, as it highlights the transmission of viruses from managed colonies to wild bumblebees.