Posted on 02/18/2020 6:13:52 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
A hardworking honey bee might feel aggrieved to be tricked into a garden shed to feed from a fake flower. Worse, she is blasted by a cheap household fan. And then timed to see how many fake flowers she can visit in 90 seconds.
But the honey bees’ tormentors are trying to help them: their ordeal is a controlled experiment that reveals how high wind speeds significantly reduce the efficiency of their foraging.
The study by University of Sussex researchers raises fears that bees and other flying pollinators may struggle in the higher and more frequent winds caused by global heating.
The bees, which usually feed on wild flowers after leaving their hives in the campus gardens, were lured into the shed with sugar water feeders. Only one bee was allowed in at a time, and their visits to artificial flowers were videoed and timed under different fan speeds, which mimicked calm and windy days.
With no wind, the bees on average took nectar from 5.45 flowers during their 90-second time trial. When wind speeds were increased, this fell to an average of 3.73 flowers. Over the course of a day, a bee’s capacity to supply its colony with food would be significantly curtailed.
Researchers also examined the indirect impact of higher winds by moving the flowers.
The findings reveal that, while flower movement did not appear to have an effect on the bees, the movement of air from the fans made them much more hesitant to take off from a flower, with time taken ranging from an initial 0.05 seconds to 54 seconds.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
What idiot comes up with things like this?
Is there anything globull warming can’t do?
The upside is that it will be safer to fart in public due to higher wind dispersal rates.
There was never any wind until that darned global warming came along.
It doesn’t get updated any more, but this list of things it can do is excellent!
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
It’s mind numbing to watch the mental calisthenics these people go through to justify belief in the ill effects of global warming. Like bees have never had to deal with wind before...
Good grief!
The Guardian folks may just qualify as the most gullible folks in the multiverse. Had I not seen their almost daily idiocy, I’d believe that the climate of re very recent past was absolutely perfect and any deviation from it would produce an existential crisis. Any deviation.
Oh well, journalism exists for those who absolutely, positively cannot create anything useful.
They would struggle with the wind a great deal less than liberals struggle with reality.
We’ve known about bees and their wind and rain flying habits for centuries. And that’s the way it is, has been and will be till the ends of time.
“And then timed to see how many fake flowers she can visit in 90 seconds. “
You can’t begin a sentence with the word ‘and’ — it’s not allowed.
Fake flowers...fake science...
New day, new “study.”
Same old claptrap.
We need a contest for the most ridiculous “by global warming” headline one can formulate (and then see if it actually beats what has already been published).
My contribution: “Journalists concerned about depletion of available new metaphors due to overuse caused by global warming”.
Ground-bound critters will have problems too, at least according to Bob Dylan: “The ants are my friends, they’re blowing in the wind...”
Because there was never any wind before global warming ... right?
On the positive side, there are more flowers in an expanded growing area.
So it’s a push! 8^)
Oh good grief
This experiment would make a good Junior High Science project, but that’s about all.
This is from the Guardian, Pravda west. GMAB
“The study by University of Sussex researchers raises fears that bees and other flying pollinators may struggle in the higher and more frequent winds caused by global heating.”
Take a flying leap!
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