User:Thies.lauren/sandbox

Increasingly Orchard bees (spring mason bees) are being used in fruit tree pollination. According to British writer Christopher O'Toole in his book The Red Mason Bee, Osmia rufa is a much more efficient pollinator of orchard crops (in Europe) than honey bees. Both O. rufa and O. cornuta are used in Europe, while in western North America, the "Blue Orchard Bee" (Osmia lignaria, more black than blue in color) is a proven orchard pollinator. In Japan, the Japanese Orchard Bee—the hornfaced bee, Osmia cornifrons—provides up to 80% of the apple pollination. Beyond Japan, Osmia cornifrons is also used increasingly in the eastern US, because like other mason bees it is up to 100 times more efficient than the honeybee—a mere 600 hornfaced bees being required per hectare, as opposed to tens of thousands of honeybees. Home growers may find these more acceptable in suburban locations because they rarely sting.

Cultural eutrophication is the process that speeds up natural eutrophication because of human activity. Due to clearing of land and building of towns and cities, land runoff is accelerated and more nutrients such as phosphates and nitrate are supplied to lakes and rivers, and then to coastal estuaries and bays. Extra nutrients are also supplied by treatment plants, golf courses, fertilizers, and farms. Human activities, including the ones previously listed, can be responsible for the increase in nutrients, therefore, cultural eutrophication is more pronounced in non-polar ecosystems which have higher levels of human activity. Polar regions have less human activity and subsequently less cultural eutrophication.

Cultural eutrophication also occurs when excessive fertilizers run into lakes and rivers. This encourages the growth of algae (algal bloom) and other aquatic plants. Following this, overcrowding occurs and plants compete for sunlight, space and oxygen. Overgrowth of water plants also blocks sunlight and oxygen for aquatic life in the water, which in turn threatens their survival. Algae also grows easily, thus threatening other water plants no matter whether they are floating, half-submerged, or fully submerged. Nutrient pollution is a major cause of algal blooming.

While relatively common in lower-latitude ecosystems, cultural eutrophication has been limited in scope in the polar regions as a result of the generally lesser effects of human activities at high latitudes.