The Need for Bees (and not just for honey) Honeybees, along with a few other key animals, are critical to human existence on our planet. Along with honey production, these insects provide the vital role of pollination of many trees and plants that provide food for our survival. In 2007, the term Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) was created to describe the decline of honeybee populations around the world. Bee decline can be attributed to factors such as viruses, pesticides, predators, habitat destruction, and environmental conditions. […]
CO$_2$ and Global Warming Prior to the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide (CO$_2$) in the atmosphere was consistently around 280 parts per million (ppm). The concentration of CO$_2$ in the atmosphere reached 377.7 ppm in March of 2004, resulting in the largest 10-year average increase up to that time. According to scientists from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) the monthly mean CO$_2$ concentration level peaked at 421 ppm in May 2022. An Organisation for Economic Co-Operations and Development (OECD) report predicts a CO$_2$ level of 685 ppm by 2050. […]
Problem chosen: A Honeybees are insects that make the ecosystem of our natural flow in harmony. They are the main pollinators of flowers, without them the flowers would not be able to reproduce and would cause a decrease in the number of crops that we could harvest. Therefore honeybees take a crucial part in the welfare of our ecosystem. Our work mostly focuses on the population of honeybees, and studies to find out various types of variables that could possibly decrease the number of honeybee colonies. […]
Problem chosen: A Pollination plays an important role in the ecosystem, and honeybees are the most crucial pollinators for fruits and vegetables that are essential for human life. Consequently, it would be necessary to identify the factors that are leading to CCD(Colony Collapse Disorder) and predict the honeybee population to prevent more colony losses. Our task was to develop a model that will determine the population of honeybee colonies over time. Firstly, we listed the factors that would affect the population of honeybees in a colony. The key factors that we listed were: egg laying rate, ratio of fertilized eggs, lifespan of worker bees, etc. All of these factors are related to the annual fluctuations of the hive. […]