Pollination by Insects Cause Bigger Apples

Cox's Orange Pippin is an apple cultivar first grown in England,

Pollination can occur in several different ways, but usually plants rely on animals or wind to help pollinate them and help distribute their pollen and seeds.However, a new study shows that apple trees produce bigger, rounder, and more desirable fruit when pollinated by insects in particular.

Researchers studied Cox and Gala apples, two popular varieties in Britain, and valued the annual contribution of insects to these fruits at just under £37 million which is about 60 million American dollars.

The research was conducted on six Cox and Gala orchards in UK. At each site, some of the branches were covered with a fine PVC mesh, allowing wind and rain to get through but keeping insects out.
As a result, trees that were left open to bugs yielded both more fruit, and a larger proportion of higher-value class-one apples.

However, unfortunately in the past 30 years, the number of managed honeybee colonies has fallen by more than half. Due to disease outbreaks, pesticide use, and a decline in the number of bee-keepers, bee populations are on the brink of collapse.According to study by PLOS ONE, more than half of European countries no longer have enough honeybees to pollinate their crops.

Honeybee shortage threatens crop pollination

In more than half of European countries, there are not enough honeybees to pollinate crops, according to new research by the scientists at Plos One.

                                   

Scientists believe that a boom in biofuels has sparked a massive increase in the need for pollination.The shortage is particularly severe in the untied kingdom (UK) which has only a quarter of the honeybees required.Researchers believe that wild pollinators including bumblebees and hoverflies are making up the shortfall.


Little is known about the number of wild pollinating species as they are not being monitored in the UK. The researchers believe this reliance on them could be hampering yields and putting UK crops at risk.

½ of the uk suitable for fracking

More than half of the UK could be suitable for shale gas fracking, according to the government-commissioned report.
Under the maximum scenario, up to 2,880 wells could be drilled for oil or gas in a new licensing round, the report says, generating around 16,000 to 32,000 jobs.

Fracking – a process that involves splitting shale rocks deep underground - uses huge amounts of water, and in some places this would need to be shipped in by tanker. This means fracking will squeeze water supplies for local communities around the shale gas site.

Around ¾ of water will used for fracking flows back with the addition of extra water to be used again for fracking.

Greenhouse gases during the exploration phase could be up to 0.96 million tonnes of CO2 – totalling just over 15% of the UK’s emissions from all oil and gas production.