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Are Bees Happier in Cities?
We often think of them as living happily in wildflower meadows and rolling fields. But new research suggests Britain’s bees are happier near towns and cities.
A new studies of wildlife sites across four English countries has found that most are home to fewer species of bees today than they were in the past. It found that the expansion of farmland has actually been more damaging to Britain’s bees population than the concreting over of the countryside for housing. For instance, meadows near Milton Keynes now boast more species of bee than sites in more rural areas.
Reading University researcher Dr Deepa Senapathi believes intensive agriculture is to blame. Climate change could be destroying the relationship between bees and plants. That’s according to a study that said warmer springs can change the life cycles of bees, which can throw them out of the plants they rely on. The research is the first clear example of the potential for climate change to destroy such critical relationship between species.
While the gardens, parks and churchyards of towns and cities provide bees with a variety of plants to rely on and an extended flowering season, popular crops such as oil-seed rape only bloom for a few weeks.
Dr Senapathi said, “While concreting over the countryside may appear to be bad news for nature, we’ve found that progressive urbanization may be much less damaging than intensive agriculture.”
Urban areas may benefit bees more than farmland by providing a wide variety of flowering plants and an extended flowering season, according to the researcher.
“Over the past century, rural landscapes in Britain have become increasingly dominated by large amounts of mono-culture -- the growing of a single type of plant, which has helped encourage crop production,” she said. “But without a mixture of habitat and food sources, rural areas can sometimes be little better than green deserts for biodiversity.”
Scientists around the country are trying to work out why populations of bees and other insects are falling. Pesticides, climate change and disease may, like intensive farming, be playing a role.
(Note: Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN TEN WORDS.)
63. According to the new study of wildlife sites across four English counties, the number of bee species is _____________________.
64. According to Dr Senapathi, the development of cities causes _______________________________ to bees than farmlands in the suburbs.
65. What are the two advantages of urban areas over farmland when it comes to housing for bees?
66. Green deserts in the passage refers to the place where there is_______________________________.
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