The importance of bees in pollinating crops has been in the news in recent years because of declining populations of wild and domestic bees and other pollinators due to unidentified causes which may include both natural and manmade changes to their ecosystems, including climate. The University of Vermont released a map in December which shows the areas in which wild bee populations are threatened by decline. While domesticated honey bees can take over some of the pollinating activities of wild bees, they are also threatened.
The Southeast is less threatened than some other areas of the country. The largest impacts are in the peninsula of Florida, as seen in the map below.
You can read an article about this latest research at Ars Technica here.
