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| CORRECTED - Researchers find "alarming" decline in bumblebees Posted: 05 Jan 2011 07:11 AM PST (Corrects paragraph 2 and 13 to show the bees are at risk of inbreeding but the researchers have not yet demonstrated they are inbred) By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Four previously abundant species of bumblebee are close to disappearing in the United States, researchers reported on Monday in a study confirming that the agriculturally important bees are being affected worldwide. They documented a 96 percent decline in the numbers of the four species, and said their range had shrunk by as much as 87 percent. As with honeybees, a pathogen is partly involved, but the researchers also found evidence the bees are vulnerable to inbreeding caused by habitat loss. "We provide incontrovertible evidence that multiple Bombus species have experienced sharp population declines at the national level," the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, calling the findings "alarming." "These are one of the most important pollinators of native plants," Sydney Cameron of the University of Illinois, Urbana, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. In recent years, experts have documented a disappearance of bees in what is widely called colony collapse disorder, blamed on many factors including parasites, fungi, stress, pesticides and viruses. But most studies have focused on honeybees. Bumblebees are also important pollinators, Cameron said, but are far less studied. Bumblebees pollinate tomatoes, blueberries and cranberries, she noted. "The 50 species (of bumblebees) in the United States are traditionally associated with prairies and with high alpine vegetations," she added. "Just as important -- they land on a flower and they have this behavior called buzz pollination that enables them to cause pollen to fly off the flower." POLLINATING TOMATOES This is the way to pollinate tomatoes, Cameron said -- although smaller bees can accomplish the same effect if enough cluster on a single flower. Several reports have documented the disappearance of bumblebees in Europe and Asia, but no one had done a large national study in the Americas. Cameron's team did a three-year study of 382 sites in 40 states and also looked at more than 73,000 museum records. "We show that the relative abundance of four species have declined by up to 96 percent and that their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23 percent to 87 percent," they wrote. While no crops are in immediate danger, the results show that experts need to pay attention, Cameron said. Pollinators such as bees and bats often have specific tongue lengths and pollination behaviors that have evolved along with the species of plants they pollinate. Bumblebees can fly in colder weather than other species, and are key to pollinating native species in the tundra and at high elevations, Cameron said. Genetic tests show that the four affected bumblebee species have a risky lack of genetic diversity and other tests implicate a parasite called Nosema bombi, Cameron said. "This is a wake-up call that bumblebee species are declining not only in Europe, not only in Asia, but also in North America," she said. (Editing by Vicki Allen) Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| Morocco says holding member of Al Qaeda in Maghreb Posted: 05 Jan 2011 07:11 AM PST RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco said it had arrested a member of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) among 26 others who planned to attack security services and rob banks using weapons they hid in an area of the disputed Western Sahara. Quoting an interior ministry statement, official media said Moroccan security forces recently broke up the 27-member cell and had discovered weapon caches in Amghala, an oasis located in the disputed Western Sahara. "Moroccan security services have succeeded in dismantling a terrorist cell of 27 members, among whom is a member of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb who was tasked by this organisation to set up a rear base in Morocco where it would plan terrorist acts," it said. The ministry did not say when or where they were arrested. "Members of the cell, supervised by a Moroccan citizen who is in the Al Qaeda camps in northern Mali, have been planning terrorist acts using explosive belts and car bombs that mainly target security services and to rob banks to fund their terrorist projects," it added. The cell members also planned to send recruits "to AQIM camps in Algeria and Mali to undergo paramilitary training before returning to Morocco to execute their destructive plans using the weapons discovered near Amghala", it added. Moroccan Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui in remarks carried by the official MAP news agency said members of the cell also targeted foreign interests and had links with "extremist elements" based in Europe. The seized weapons included 30 Kalashnikov assault rifles, two rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and ammunition, he said. Mohamed Darif, an expert on Islamic militancy in Morocco, said the latest arrest is the first to suggest the existence of links between AQIM and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front which seeks independence in the Western Sahara. "It is only a matter of time before Moroccan authorities officially announce the existence of links between this cell and the Polisario Front. This would give credence to the Moroccan thesis on the existence of links between AQIM and the Polisario," Darif said. The Polisario has been battling for independence for the Western Sahara for 35 years. Officials at the embassy of Polisario's self-styled Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Algiers could not immediately be reached for a comment. Since the rise of AQIM over the last few years, the Moroccan government has said that giving territory to the Polisario in the Western Sahara could make it a haven for Islamist militancy. Algeria, Polisario's main supporter, is itself battling AQIM militants, some of whom are the inheritors of a movement which led to a bloody civil war from 1991 to 2002. Violence linked to militancy is rare in Morocco, a staunch Western ally with a reputation for stability that has helped to entice millions of tourists to visit the country. The last big attack was a series of suicide bombings in the economic capital, Casablanca, in 2003 that killed 45 people. Since then security services say they have rounded up more than 60 radical cells. (Editing by Myra MacDonald and Jason Neely) Copyright © 2011 Reuters |
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