Plants and Pollinators Falling Out of Sync

http://www.futurity.org/earth-environment/plants-and-pollinators-falling-out-of-sync/
Diana Lutz-Futurity
March 1, 2013

Summary

               Biologists are now discovering that the bond between the plants and their pollinators are becoming more weak. Studies show that they are much weaker than what they were 100 years ago. They suspect this to be an effect of climate change and habitat loss. Nearly half the bees are left that pollinate certain flowers, each carrying even less pollen that is effective in pollinating that certain flower. This is a big factor as to how flowers are able to reproduce. Other factors in this decrease in the bond are the timing. Studies show that some flowers are blooming nine days earlier while the bees are coming out in a substantially different time. This therefore decreases the amount of time they are able to interact and ultimately making them "fall out of sync" as the title implies. Although these connections may be affected, their methods are flexible and can be replaced by new ones.

Connection

                 This article connects to our curriculum because it talks about plants. It also talks heavily about how certain plants reproduce, by pollination, which is what we have been learning in the past chapter. This also has other connections such as animals, the bees. The process of pollination and fertilization in plants, even blooming times, tie directly to our biology unit.