Bees as Bioindicators of Environmental Pollution with Metals in an Urban Area

Abstract

The commonness of metal contamination, even at considerable distances from industrial centers and intensively used economic areas, has become the interest of many researchers. The issue of evaluating the state of the environment with the help of living organisms has become a very important part in the control of the natural environment. Honey bee (Apis mellifera L) is a good bioindicator as it is inextricably linked to the natural environment in which it lives. The aim of the research, and at the same time the main assumption of the study, was to evaluate the effectiveness of honeybees (Apis mellifera L) as bioindicators for the presence of Cu, Cr, Zn, Mn, Fe in the urban area (example of Bialystok city). The study includes pilot studies covering three sampling periods (March, June and September 2015). Analyses of metals were made by ASA method. The results showed the presence of Cu, Cr Zn, Mn and Fe in all bees samples. An increased content of Cr in bees was also found, which may be the result of the presence of this element in the environment (air, soil, water, plants, pollen) and in the impregnation agent applied to protect wooden elements of the bee hive. The research showed seasonal variation of metals in bees bodies. The main sources of studied metals in bee samples seem to be motorization, industry, and municipal economy within the urban area. Statistical calculations showed a common origin of majority of studied metals. Bee studies for metals contents can be an important element of a bio-monitoring of changing natural environment as a consequence of anthropogenic activity.

Biomonitoring of Atmospheric Aerosol with the use of Apis mellifera and Pleurozium schreberi

“…If bee feed contains high quantities of heavy metals, their cell defence reactions can be impaired [6]. Study results confirm that various environmental conditions (pollution) influence productivity of colonies: honey yield, foraging behaviours, a colony survival, quality and quantity of products; additionally, these conditions considerably influence metabolic and physiological processes in bees [7].…”

“…Other researchers also confirm that accumulation of heavy metals is related to the environment in which apiaries are located (in this case -urbanised areas). The authors enumerate such sources of analytes as the influence of industry or motor vehicles traffic on pollution of honeybees [6]. The studies carried out in urbanised areas provide data on pollution levels but also allow for assessing the possibility of using bees in long-term monitoring of anthropogenic changes and their use as the source of information about the changing environment conditions [21].…”

Pollutants and Their Interaction with Diseases of Social Hymenoptera

“…Among the pollutants, pesticides used in agriculture have gained the most attention because pollinators visit crop plants or wild flowers growing near arable fields and are confronted with those chemicals when collecting food ( Figure 1) [59][60][61][62]. Heavy metals are a second group of pollutants that may threaten social insects in agricultural regions, but also in more urbanized or industrial areas [31,35,[63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71]. Heavy metals are present in soils (either naturally or due to pollution) and can potentially lead to contamination of the nests of social insects, or they may move up the food chain ( Figure 2).…”

“…Plants may take up heavy metals which, in turn, are ingested by social bees collecting pollen and nectar. Also, other herbivorous insects serving as prey for social wasps may accumulate these pollutants, which may result in the increased exposure of these predatory wasps to heavy metals [35,36,47,63,65,[68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80]. Pesticides (or their residues) and heavy metals, as well as other pollutants from combustion, traffic, agriculture, and coal mining, can also form or bind to fine particulate matter [66,[81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91] that pollutes the air.…”

Antimicrobial Activity of Brazilian Stingless Bee Products

“…Ao longo dos anos, expandiu-se o espectro de bioindicadores para auxiliar nos estudos em ambientes aquáticos e terrestres, usando os principais grupos taxonômicos do reino animal e vegetal (HOLT & MILLER, 2010). Observa-se que entre 2012 a 2018 Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758, Melipona scutellaris Latreille, 1811 e Tetragonisca angustula Latreille, 1811 (Hymenoptera: Apidae), tem se destacando em estudos que utilizam, tanto a abelha quanto os produtos das suas colmeia, como bioindicadores de poluição ambiental (ZHELYAZKOVA, 2012;FORMICKI et al, 2013;NASCIMENTO et al, 2015;SILICI et al, 2016;TAHA et al, 2017;BONSUCESSO et al, 2018;NASCIMENTO et al, 2018a;2018b;SKORBIŁOWICZ et al, 2018).…”