LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Bee hives at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are destined for research that could help Nebraska’s beekeepers better understand bees, their benefits and how to tailor habitat to protect them.

Honeybee populations have been hard hit in the North American wild, leaving cultivated bees and less-populous wild critters like butterflies and bumblebees to spread pollen.

A recent survey by the Center for Biological Diversity found that 40 percent of the continent’s native insect pollinators are at risk of extinction, even though 90 percent of wild plants rely on insects for pollination.

All but about a dozen of the white boxes at the university’s East Campus pollinator garden will eventually be moved throughout the county to urban and rural locations for research.