There is an environmental mystery afoot, and it begins with a seemingly trivial detail that reveals a disaster of global proportions. One day, you notice that the honey you slather on your morning toast is more expensive. Instead of switching to jam, you investigate the reason for the price hike. What you find is shocking. The number of domesticated honeybees in the US has been decreasing at an alarming rate. This decline appears too big to be explained by the usual causes of bee death alone: disease, parasites or starvation. A typical crime scene has almost no adult bees left in the hive, except, perhaps, a lonely queen and a few other survivors. It's full of untouched food stores and a brood of unborn larvae, suggesting that the adults vacated without waiting for them to hatch. But what's particularly eerie is that there's no tell-tale mass of dead or dying bees nearby. Either they have forgotten their way back to the hive, or they have simply disappeared. These mysterious disappearances aren't new. Humans have been collecting honey for centuries. But it wasn't until European settlers in the 1600's introduced the subspecies, Apis mellifera, that we domesticated bees. Since the 19th century, beekeepers have reported occasional mass disappearances, giving them enigmatic names like disappearing disease, spring dwindle disease and autumn collapse. But when in 2006 such losses were found to affect more than half of all hives in the US, the phenomenon got a new name: colony collapse disorder. The most frightening thing about this mystery isn't that we'll have to go back to using regular sugar in our tea. We farm bees for their honey, but they also pollinate our crops on an industrial scale, generating over 1/3 of America's food production this way. So, how can we find the culprit behind this calamity? Here are three of the possible offenders. Exhibit A: Pests and Disease. Most infamous is the varroa mite, a minuscule red pest that not only invades colonies and feeds on bees, but also transfers pathogens that stunt bee growth and shortens their life span. Exhibit B: Genetics. The queen is the core of a healthy hive. But nowadays, the millions of queen bees distributed in commercial hives are bred from just a few original queens, which raises the worry about a lack of genetic diversity which could weaken bees' defenses against pathogens and pests. Exhibit C: Chemicals. Pesticides used both on commercial beehives and agricultural crops to ward off parasites could be getting into the food and water that honeybees consume. Researchers have even found that some pesticides damage the honeybees' homing abilities. So we have a file full of clues but no clear leads. In reality, scientists, the actual detectives on this case, face disagreement over what causes colony collapse disorder. For now, we assume that several factors are the cause. Honeybees aren't necessarily in danger of extinction, but fewer bees overall means less pollination and higher food costs, so it's crucial that scientists solve the case of the vanishing bees. Because while having less honey might be a buzzkill, crop shortages are something that would truly sting.
有件關於環境的謎團正在進行中 從看似微不足道的小細節開始 掀起了一場遍及全球的大災難 某天,你發現塗在早餐吐司上的蜂蜜 變得昂貴許多 你不打算換成果醬 你研究了價格上揚的原因 結果讓你大吃一驚 美國境內養蜂的數量 少到要拉警報了 數量減少的程度 無法只用常見的致命因素 像是病害、寄生蟲與飢荒來解釋 典型的犯罪現場即是 幾乎沒有成蜂還在蜂巢裡 也許,除了一隻孤單的蜂后和一些倖存者 裡頭還有沒動過的食物存貨 和一窩還沒出世的幼蜂 可能是成蜂沒等牠們孵出就已離巢了 但是格外令人毛骨悚然的是 附近沒有傳言中大量死亡 或垂死的蜜蜂身影 牠們不是早忘了回蜂巢的路 就是單純的消失了 這些神祕的失蹤案件並不是頭一遭 人類採蜜已長達幾個世紀 直到十七世紀時,歐洲殖民者 引進亞種「西方蜜蜂」 就是我們後來養的蜜蜂 自從二十世紀開始 養蜂人提到三不五時的大量失蹤事件 賦予了牠們謎樣的名稱 像是消失病、春季減少症 和秋季崩解 但是在 2006 年時我們發現這樣的損失 影響層面超過美國半數的蜂巢 這個現象有了新名稱 蜂群衰竭失調 這個謎團最嚇人的部分 不是我們得回到過去在茶裡加普通的糖 我們養殖蜂以取得蜜 但是牠們也以工業規模 在我們的穀物上授粉 以此生產超過 1/3 的美國食物 因此,我們要怎麼找到 這場災難背後的兇手呢? 這些有三個可能的罪魁禍首 證物一:害蟲和疾病 惡名昭彰的榜首是蜂蟹蟎 微小的紅色害蟲 不只是侵略領地、以蜂為食 還轉移病原體,阻礙蜜峰生長 並減短牠們的壽命 證物二:遺傳學 蜂后是健全蜂巢的核心 但是現在,有數不清的蜂后 在商業用的蜂巢裡,但這些蜂后 是同一小批的蜂后養大的 因此讓人擔憂缺乏了遺傳的多樣性 可能會減弱蜜蜂 抵抗病原體和害蟲的攻擊 證物三:化學製品 在商業蜂巢和農作物中 用來阻擋寄生蟲的農藥 可能會流入蜜蜂攝取的食物和水中 研究員還發現有些農藥 會破壞蜜蜂嗡嗡叫的本能 我們有一打的線索 但是沒有明確的方向 科學家,這個案件的首要偵探 面臨了導致蜂群衰竭失調主因的爭論 現階段我們假設某些因素是罪魁禍首 蜜蜂還未面臨絕跡 但是蜜蜂減少就意謂著 較少的授粉和較高的伙食費 因此科學家要為蜜蜂消失破案 是非常重要的事 因為少了點蜂蜜很掃興 作物短缺也是件讓人難過的事