Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder: A Pluralistic Reframing

Abstract

Scientific narratives surrounding colony collapse disorder (CCD) are often played against one another. However, oppositional knowledge politics do not neatly segregate the materiality and causal properties of the ecological phenomena they represent. Thus the challenge with CCD is not just to describe the partisan character of how knowledge about it is socially produced. It is also about how to integrate these politics through their less antagonistic material ecologies. We review three dominant discourses underlying CCD and honey bee decline and present a synthesis that conveys how their socially embedded perceptions about ecological causality are more compatible. We invoke a theoretical framework from complexity theory to demonstrate how multiple kinds of ecological causality, from the identifiable and addressable to the more emergent and unpredictable, can align under conflicting policy positions. We argue that this continuum of ecological explanations is a more conciliatory framework for responding to CCD. It provides an alternative to the antagonistic politics that tend to reify and defend either a restrictive search for a singular cause, a paralyzing documentation of all possible permutations of CCD, or a return to a utopian agrarian past. Relating how ecological knowledge is socially produced can illuminate stakeholder positions and strategies. But it is also constructive to map out how the ecological suppositions underlying them relate and inform one under.

An Overview on Honeybee Colony Losses in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

“…Some hypotheses suggested that pathogens like N. ceranae, V. destructor, bacteria, and several viruses could be responsible of these losses (Cox-Foster et al, 2007;McMenamin & Genersch, 2015;Brutscher et al, 2016;Meana et al, 2017), as well as pesticides (Chauzat et al, 2006). Unfavorable weather conditions and consequent lack of available food, large-scale transhumance practices, nutrition, genetic, or even a combination of several factors are considered some of other potential drivers (Stokstad, 2007;vanEngelsdorp et al, 2009;Ellis et al, 2010;Potts et al, 2010;Ratnieks & Carreck, 2010;Huang, 2012;Francis et al, 2014;Watson & Stallins, 2016;Maggi et al, 2016;Richardson, 2017). Moreover since both honey bee host and pathogens (if involved) are genetically diverse, symptoms and causes of colony losses may well change in different regions (Neumann & Carreck, 2010).…”

“…Instead, many causes arise from the hypothesis that this is a multifactorial complex syndrome. Reframing discussions in a pluralistic way is needed, but reductionism should not be rejected outright (Watson & Stallins, 2016). A clearer separation that delineates the boundaries between the different cases of bee mortality is necessary to make estimations and comparisons between them and to be able to define CCD causes.…”

“…Losses of honey bees and other pollinators threat biodiversity as well as food and agricultural production (Simon-Delso et al, 2014;Watson & Stallins, 2016). The phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is expressed carrying out a complete absence of adult bees in a hive often plenty of both capped brood and food reserves (vanEngelsdorp et al, 2009).…”

Evaluating European Food Safety Authority Protection Goals for Honeybees (Apis mellifera): What Do They Mean for Pollination?

“…Extensive empirical research has been conducted to determine the cause of these events, focusing on individual stressors that include Varroa mites (Varroa destructor; Le Conte et al 2010;Rosenkranz et al 2010), pathogens such as Nosema (Higes et al 2009) and bee viruses transmitted by Varroa mites (Cox-Foster et al 2007;Genersch and Aubert 2010), and exposure to pesticides (Thompson 2003;Henry et al 2012). As yet the underlying cause of colony collapse remains unclear (Ratnieks and Carreck 2010;Watson and Stallins 2016). Nevertheless, regulation is required to ensure that stocks are protected.…”

A review of ecosystem service benefits from wild bees across social contexts

“…Patiny et al 2009;Winfree 2010). Human-insect connections garner relatively little attention and a comprehensive review on wild bees interaction with humans is yet to be conducted (Watson and Stallins 2016).…”