Honey bees can help monitor pollution in cities

March 11, 2019, University of British Columbia

Honey from urban bees can tell us how clean a city is and help pinpoint the sources of environmental pollutants such as lead, new University of British Columbia research has found.

In a study published today in Nature Sustainability, scientists from UBC's Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research (PCIGR) analyzed honey from urban beehives in six Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods. They tested for miniscule levels of lead, zinc, copper and other elements and carried out lead isotope analyses—akin to fingerprinting—to identify where the lead came from.

"The good news is that the chemical composition of honey in Vancouver reflects its environment and is extremely clean," said Kate E. Smith, lead author of the study and Ph.D. candidate at PCIGR. "We also found that the concentration of elements increased the closer you got to downtown Vancouver, and by fingerprinting the lead we can tell it largely comes from manmade sources."

Tiny elements, tiny measurements

Metro Vancouver honey is well below the worldwide average for heavy metals like lead, and an adult would have to consume more than 600 grams, or two cups, of honey every day to exceed tolerable levels.

"The instruments at PCIGR are very sensitive and measure these elements in parts per billion, or the equivalent of one drop of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool," said Dominique Weis, senior author and director of the institute.

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Saving bees: France's thriving city hives offer token help

August 11, 2016 by David Courbet

Beehives in the French countryside are showing a distressing rate of "dead-outs"—deserted honeycombs pointing to dwindling bee populations

Urban rooftops are buzzing across France, but the fad for beekeeping from Montpellier to Lille to Paris—including atop AFP's headquarters—will do little do reverse declining bee populations, experts say.

The northern city of Lille was a pioneer in efforts to defend the bee by providing pesticide-free environments, and it was among the first to sign on to a national public awareness campaign, "Bees, Sentinels of the Environment", back in 2007.

Since then, 80 species of wild bees that had disappeared from the Lille area have returned.

"In terms of diversity, 2015 was a good year," says Lise Daleux, the city's top environmental official, noting that three rare wild bee species were spotted.

Lille's free course on bees at the city's rail station, with its 10 hives, has a two-year waiting list, and in 2008 it became the first French city to appoint a municipal apiculture pointman.

The southern city of Montpellier also caught the buzz early, installing beehives on the roofs of many high schools.

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Trend for owning beehives in London is bad for insects and birds, say researchers

Beehives, which are top of John Lewis's wedding gift list, are leading to excess urban bee populations

Sophie Morris 

Wednesday 2 March 2016

Haven't times changed? According to John Lewis, after an unhealthily long obsession with toasters and towels, its wedding-gift list has hit a sweet spot: the top request is now for a beehive. And not just any beehive. This one is eco-friendly and, at just £20, a somewhat more austerity-friendly choice than the smart TVs for up to £3,000 that are also popular.

This trend nicely unpicks the hackneyed image of Bridezilla and her groom. Instead of loading up with glistening crystal and shimmering silverware, it turns out that today's right-on newlyweds have one eye on declining bee populations and the other on the health benefits of eating local honey.

Good news for Camilla Goddard, who runs Capital Bee. She looks after around 70 hives in London – including at the Old Bailey, the Garrick Club, schools and hotels – and once fulfilled an order for hundreds of little bottles of honey to be given away as wedding favours. "I get a lot of people on my courses who are there because their partners have bought a hive for them as a romantic gift," she says.

Camilla set up Capital Bee 10 years ago and has watched our hive-brain develop in the interval. By how much becomes clear from data released by BeeBase – a resource for beekeepers run by the UK's National Bee Unit – which correlates with the John Lewis news. It shows that, in the five years from 2008 to 2013, the number of beekeepers in Greater London tripled from 464 to 1,237. Meanwhile, hive numbers doubled to more than 3,500 from 1,677.

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Young citizen scientists reveal urban bee 'surprise'

9 September 2014 Last updated at 07:44

By Jonathan Webb

Science reporter, BBC News, Birmingham

A patch of lavender in a city centre sees more bumblebees than a patch in the country, according to preliminary results from a citizen science project.

Around 30,000 schoolchildren from 400 schools across the UK did the counts as part of the Big Bumblebee Discovery.

The first insights were announced at the British Science Festival.

Rather than generally higher bee numbers in cities, the results probably reflect a higher concentration of urban bees on more limited flowers.

High-density living

"Within cities, there are fewer floral resources," said Dr Michael Pocock from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, who led the analysis of the data with colleague Dr Helen Roy.

"And so one of the likely explanations is that there's a concentration effect - the bumblebees in the area are concentrated on floral resources which are provided through pots of lavender and beds of lavender."

That isn't necessarily bad news, Dr Roy added, because it suggests that planting more flowers in cities will help boost bumblebee numbers.

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Urban bees using plastic to build hives

Date:

February 11, 2014

Source:

University of Guelph

Summary:

Once the snow melts, bees will be back in business -- pollinating, making honey and keeping busy doing bee things. For at least two urban bee species, that means making nests out of plastic waste. A new study reveals that some bees use bits of plastic bags and plastic building materials to construct their nests.

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