The role of beekeeping within agrarian and natural ecosystems

Abstract

The role played by beekeeping within agrarian and natural ecosystems is analyzed, in relation to honey production and, above all, to bees as pollinators.

In natural ecosystems, pollinating insects belonging to Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera carry out pollen transport in a great number of plants, belonging to several families (Liliaceae, Cruciferae, Rosaceae, Leguminosae, Compositae, etc.). In particular, the spread of Leguminosae, which is helped by wild Apoidea and by Apis mellifera L., creates a symbiosis between these plants and nitrogen-fixing bacteria, with a consequent increase in soil fertility.

Agrarian ecosystems are extremely unfavourable to wild pollinators, due to crop specialization and the consequent biotic simplification. Pollination is ensured, both in self-sterile and self-fertile plants, by honey-bees, which may be easily bred and subsequently transported. This leads to an appreciable increase in production, which is roughly estimated in Italy to be of about 2,000 billion lire. By contrast, honey and all the other beekeeping products (wax, pollen, royal jelly, propolis), though representing the economic basis of apiarian farms, give a total profit of about 30 billion lire.

KEY WORDS:

• honeybee
• melliferous flora
• entomogamous cultivated species
• biotic pollination