DIGITAL HIVES PROBING DECLINE OF BEES, INSECTS

A DIGITAL beehive might be the next step to help understand why the number of bees and other pollinating insects is falling rapidly. Nordic software consultant Tieto Oyj has placed sensors in two beehives in Sweden, connecting about 80 000 bees in each to the internet. The hives send data to the off-site servers where it can be remotely accessed in real time, and soon artificial intelligence algorithms will be used to analyse the information. Using technology, Tieto says it can better track the number of bees, how viable the community is and how much honey they produce. That contributes to research and conservation of biodiversity, said Mikael Ekstrom, digitisation consultant at Tieto and beekeeper. He said the project also shows the benefits of a digitised society. A growing number of honey bees die each year due to pesticides, vanishing habitats, poor nutrition and climate change, with potentially disastrous consequences for agriculture and natural diversity. Humans quickly “need to get under the hood of the beehives, and understand more why they are decreasing and how we can help”, he said. “Modern internet of things-technology, artificial intelligence, cloud services etc now give us the tools to collect and execute in these areas.” Tieto collaborates with HSB Living Lab, and its two connected beehives are located in the Swedish cities of Gothenburg and Kalmar. While the project is small in scale, Ekstrom said Tieto is in discussions with the National Beekeepers Association to scale up the project nationwide. I Bloomberg