BYU biology professor Riley Nelson presented about the importance of honeybees and their mysterious decline in recent years at the International Cinema lecture on the film More than Honey.
PROVO, Utah (Nov. 4, 2014)—Honeybees are disappearing at an alarming and unprecedented rate, but why? Biology professor Riley Nelson led a discussion about the honeybee at an International Cinema presentation of More than Honey, a 2012 Swiss documentary film by Markus Imhoof.
“There are about 20,000 different species of bees in the world, of which you know two: the honeybee and the bumblebee,” Riley began.
“The honeybee is important to us as humans because so many of our crops are pollinated by it. If we didn’t have bees around, we wouldn’t have a lot of the foods that we really like to eat,” he said. “We would still have our rice and our wheat, but we wouldn’t have any number of other crops that absolutely need bee pollinators.”
More than Honey is a documentary that examines honeybee colonies from Switzerland, California, China and Australia. It identifies the possible reasons responsible for the weakening of the honeybee’s immune system and resilience, as well as the ways in which mankind is exploiting them.
Riley also discussed the disconcerting and prolific disappearance of bees over the past 15 years. “Honeybees are going through a rough time right now because of a syndrome that is called colony collapse disorder,” Riley said. He explained that they have identified about two dozen explanations about why the bees are dying, but the real cause remains a mystery.
He concluded, “Colony collapse disorder is a syndrome by our best estimates. We would love it as scientists if we could figure out what is causing it so that we could eliminate that cause.”
For more information about honeybees and colony collapse disorder, contact Riley Nelson.
—Sylvia Cutler (BA English ’17)