Undomesticated pollinators are at enormous risk of extinction due to their specialisation, an expert has warned.
Vienna-based landscape ecologist Heinz Wiesbauer said the pressure on Austria’s 700 solitary bee species was increasing.
The author of several books on insects explained: “Of all nest-building wild bees, 34 per cent are highly specialised. They only collect pollen from one type of plant.”
Wiesbauer added: “This puts them in a potentially life-threatening situation. If a meadow which featured the preferred flower is being cut at a certain point in the year, a whole species can go extinct.”
Solitary bee species like leafcutter bees and mason bees do not produce honey. However, they are essential when it comes to ensuring balanced ecosystems.
Vienna University ecologist Prof Dr Franz Essl explained: “We are overusing our ecosystems. The fast decline in the number of species is the perfect evidence. But we need healthy soils and biological diversity, also for the production of food!”
Speaking to the NeueZeit online newspaper, the expert on climate change and biological invasions said: “As far as biodiversity in Austria is concerned, I’d have to pick ‘red’ on a traffic light to describe the state of things.”
An area almost four times as big as Vienna has been sealed in Austria during the past three decades, according to scientific research.
Experts from Vienna University recently revealed that 1,580 square kilometres (610 square miles) of soil – which is four times the size of the federal capital – had been consumed by construction projects in the last 30 years.
Vienna – which has more than 1.9 million inhabitants – measures 415 square kilometres (160 square miles).
Prof Essl warned: “We are exploiting nature in a highly unsustainable way.”
