> Analogy: A grad student could expose pigeons to auto
> emissions and find the emissions have statistically significant
> adverse effects on the reproductive health of the pigeons.
> But, of course, public health professionals would laugh at
> such a study because regardless of any adverse health effects,
> pigeons thrive in downtown Los Angeles and Mexico City.

A public health professional 'might' laugh, but a biologist wouldn't.

Many organisms, arguably all, will put up with, and may even appear to 
prosper, under a chronic stress.  Then crash disastrously when an acute 
stress is added. It may never recover unless the chronic stress is removed, 
or humans intervene.  The coral on Green Island off Cairns, Randy may well 
have visited during his trip to Australia, was a classic example.

So- long hauls; tens of thousands of hives on one site, for up to three 
months; nutritional stress (maize, sunflowers, multiple pollination); 
miticides; or insecticides; may be tolerable.  Add another, and 
voila-collapse.  Nothing unusual, just what you would expect.

Geoff Manning

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