Clothianidin seed-treatment has no detectable negative impact on honeybee colonies and their pathogens

Osterman, Julia; Wintermantel, Dimitry; Locke, Barbara; Jonsson, O.; Semberg, Emilia; Onorati, Piero; Forsgren, Eva; Rosenkranz, Peter; Rahbek-Pedersen, Thorsten; Bommarco, Riccardo; Smith, Henrik G.; Rundlöf, Maj; Miranda, Joachim R. de

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-08523-4

Cited by 53 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Bees encounter pesticides when they contact flower parts to drink nectar and collect floral pollen from flowering crops such as fruit, nut and seed crops. Consuming nectar and pollen exposes them to sublethal concentrations of these compounds that can accumulate in stored foods or in body tissues (Moffat et al, 2016;Osterman et al, 2019) and affect behaviours such as foraging (Henry et al, 2012;Muth and Leonard, 2019;Schneider et al, 2012;Yang et al, 2008), navigation (Fischer et al, 2014) and dance (Eiri and Nieh, 2016). Certain pesticides, such as neonicotinoids, are undetectable by bees when they are found in nectar, and so bees unwittingly consume these substances (Kessler et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies have now confirmed that bees exposed to neonicotinoids for long periods at field-realistic concentrations (Dively and Kamel, 2012;Osterman et al, 2019;Rortais et al, 2005;Sanchez-Bayo and Goka, 2014) have difficulty learning to associate floral scent with food (Decourtye et al, 2004;Mengoni Goñalons and Farina, 2015;Tison et al, 2019;Zhang and Nieh, 2015). Most of this research has used simple, Pavlovian conditioning to study how neonicotinoid exposure affects the rate of olfactory learning to a food reward (but see Mengoni Goñalons and Farina, 2015;Zhang and Nieh, 2015;Stanley et al, 2015;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Honeybees fail to discriminate floral scents in a complex learning task after consuming a neonicotinoid pesticide

Mustard

Gott

Scott

et al. 2020

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Neonicotinoids are pesticides used to protect crops but with known secondary influences at sublethal doses on bees. Honeybees use their sense of smell to identify the queen and nestmates, to signal danger and to distinguish flowers during foraging. Few behavioural studies to date have examined how neonicotinoid pesticides affect the ability of bees to distinguish odours. Here, we used a differential learning task to test how neonicotinoid exposure affects learning, memory and olfactory perception in foraging-age honeybees. Bees fed with thiamethoxam could not perform differential learning and could not distinguish odours during short-and long-term memory tests. Our data indicate that thiamethoxam directly impacts the cognitive processes involved in working memory required during differential olfactory learning. Using a combination of behavioural assays, we also identified that thiamethoxam has a direct impact on the olfactory perception of similar odours. Honeybees fed with other neonicotinoids (clothianidin, imidacloprid, dinotefuran) performed the differential learning task, but at a slower rate than the control. These bees could also distinguish the odours. Our data are the first to show that neonicotinoids have compound specific effects on the ability of bees to perform a complex olfactory learning task. Deficits in decision making caused by thiamethoxam exposure could mean that this is more harmful than other neonicotinoids, leading to inefficient foraging and a reduced ability to identify nestmates.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honeybees fail to discriminate floral scents in a complex learning task after consuming a neonicotinoid pesticide

Mustard

Gott

Scott

et al. 2020

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…For example, impaired nest thermoregulation has been found in bumble bees when exposed to imidacloprid [25]. However, the negative effects of neonicotinoids may be dependent on both the compound and the level of exposure seen under field conditions [26,27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equivocal Evidence for Colony Level Stress Effects on Bumble Bee Pollination Services

Greenop

Mica-Hawkyard

Walkington

et al. 2020

Insects

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Climate change poses a threat to global food security with extreme heat events causing drought and direct damage to crop plants. However, by altering behavioural or physiological responses of insects, extreme heat events may also affect pollination services on which many crops are dependent. Such effects may potentially be exacerbated by other environmental stresses, such as exposure to widely used agro-chemicals. To determine whether environmental stressors interact to affect pollination services, we carried out field cage experiments on the buff-tailed bumble bee (Bombus terrestris). Using a Bayesian approach, we assessed whether heat stress (colonies maintained at an ambient temperature of 25 • C or 31 • C) and insecticide exposure (5 ng g -1 of the neonicotinoid insecticide clothianidin) could induce behavioural changes that affected pollination of faba bean (Vicia faba). Only the bumble bee colonies and not the plants were exposed to the environmental stress treatments. Bean plants exposed to heat-stressed bumble bee colonies (31 • C) had a lower proportional pod set compared to colonies maintained at 25 • C. There was also weak evidence that heat stressed colonies caused lower total bean weight. Bee exposure to clothianidin was found to have no clear effect on plant yields, either individually or as part of an interaction. We identified no effect of either colony stressor on bumble bee foraging behaviours. Our results suggest that extreme heat stress at the colony level may impact on pollination services. However, as the effect for other key yield parameters was weaker (e.g., bean yields), our results are not conclusive. Overall, our study highlights the need for further research on how environmental stress affects behavioural interactions in plant-pollinator systems that could impact on crop yields.

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“…Varying impacts may result from differing landscape composition (Carvalheiro, Seymour, Nicolson, & Veldtman, ; Mallinger et al, ; Park et al, ) or from differences between species in life‐history traits (Tuell, ) or the sensitivity to pesticides (Arena & Sgolastra, ). Honeybees may be less impacted by pesticides than wild bees, as their large colonies can compensate for individual forager losses (Henry et al, ; Osterman et al, ; Rundlöf et al, ). Boosted bee populations in organic farms are not necessarily due to reduced pesticide exposure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic farming positively affects honeybee colonies in a flower‐poor period in agricultural landscapes

Wintermantel

Odoux²,

Bretagnolle

2019

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. Conventional farming has been implicated in global biodiversity and pollinator declines and organic farming is often regarded as a more ecological alternative.However, the effects of organic farming on honeybees remain elusive, despite honeybees' importance as pollinators of crops and wild plants.2. Using 6 years of data from a large-scale study with fortnightly measurements of honeybee colony performance traits (10 apiaries per year distributed across a 435 km 2 -large research site in France), we related worker brood area, number of adult bees and honey reserves to the proportions of organic farmland in the surroundings of the hives at two spatial scales (300 m and 1,500 m).3. We found evidence that, at the local scale, organic farming increased both worker brood production and number of adult bees in the period of flower scarcity between the blooms of oilseed rape and sunflower (hereafter 'dearth period'). At the landscape scale, organic farming increased honey reserves during the dearth period and at the beginning of the sunflower bloom.4. The results suggest that worker brood development benefitted from organic farming mostly through a more diverse diet due to an increase in the availability of diverse pollen sources in close proximity of their hives. Reduced pesticide drift may have additionally improved bee survival. Honey reserves were possibly mostly affected by increased availability of melliferous flowers in foraging distance. Synthesis and applications.Organic farming increases honeybee colony performance in a period of resource scarcity, likely through a continuous supply of floral resources including weeds, cover crops and semi-natural elements. We demonstrate how worker brood area increases in the critical dearth period (between the blooms of oilseed rape and sunflower). This has previously been linked to winter colony survival, suggesting that organic farmland may mitigate repercussions of intensive farming on colony vitality. We conclude that organic farming benefits a crucial crop pollinator with potential positive implications for agriculture in the wider landscape. K E Y W O R D S agricultural intensification, floral resources, honey production, honeybee, organic farming, rapeseed, spatial scale, worker brood | 1961 Journal of Applied Ecology WINTERMANTEL ET AL. S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O N Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article. How to cite this article: Wintermantel D, Odoux J-F, Chadoeuf J, Bretagnolle V. Organic farming positively affects honeybee colonies in a flower-poor period in agricultural landscapes. J

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Clothianidin seed-treatment has no detectable negative impact on honeybee colonies and their pathogens

Cited by 53 publications

References 64 publications

Honeybees fail to discriminate floral scents in a complex learning task after consuming a neonicotinoid pesticide

Honeybees fail to discriminate floral scents in a complex learning task after consuming a neonicotinoid pesticide

Equivocal Evidence for Colony Level Stress Effects on Bumble Bee Pollination Services

Organic farming positively affects honeybee colonies in a flower‐poor period in agricultural landscapes

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