This typically spring image is also reproduced in summer. Pollination, an accidental task entrusted to bees and other insects, is an essential part of our ecosystems.
From the municipality of Casserres, in the Berguedà, Josep Maria Picas shares this beautiful scene of a honey bee or Spanish bee pollinating a flower for Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia.
Pollination is the assisted and involuntary fertilization of plants. The transfer of pollen grains from the male part of the flower (anther) to the female part (stigma) of another or the same flower.
This highly important ecological process continues into the summer as a consequence of climate change, which also affects pollen allergies, as confirmed by a study prepared by the Allergy and Climate Change Commission of the Spanish Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (SEAIC). ).
For her part, the other protagonist of this snapshot is also in a delicate moment. The Spanish bee (Apis Mellifera Iberiensis) that arrived in Europe 300,000 years ago from Asia, is threatened by factors such as drought, diseases and the low profitability of beekeepers, since it is not the most efficient breed for honey production. .
To fight against the decline of its population, projects such as Smart Green Bees have been carried out, with the collaboration of the El Rincón de la Abeja association and artisanal beekeepers from different regions of Spain. The idea is to repopulate the peninsula with 47 million Iberian bees within two years. One for each inhabitant.
Being aware of the difficulty for their swarms to thrive, they have implanted more than necessary to account for possible diseases and other natural losses of the bees. Its expansion usually occurs now during the spring and summer.
