Exposure of the Common Eastern Bumble Bee, Bombus impatiens (Cresson), to Sub-lethal Doses of Acetamiprid and Propiconazole in Wild Blueberry

Chandler, Alexander J.; Drummond, Francis A.; Collins, J. A.; Lund, Jennifer; Alnajjar, Gabriel

doi:10.3954/1523-5475-36.1.1

Cited by 17 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Although fungicide application has been shown to be a strong landscape-scale predictor of bumble bee decline in recent studies [7], short-term toxicity studies have shown relatively minimal effects of fungicides on bumble bees and honey bees [53,54], leading to the conclusion that fungicides pose minimal harm to pollinators. However, in longer-term studies, consumption of the azole propiconazole used here has been shown to cause both lethal [23,24] and sublethal effects on bumble bees such as decreased nectar consumption and reduced cell number in nests [22]. In these studies, a minimum of 2-3 weeks was required to detect negative effects of fungicides on survival and reproduction, suggesting that short-term toxicity studies can overlook delayed or indirect effects, similar to those we detected on bees and their associated fungi.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bee-associated fungi mediate effects of fungicides on bumble bees

Rutkowski

Litsey

Maalouf

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Bumble bees are important pollinators that face threats from multiple sources, including agrochemical application. Declining bumble bee populations have been linked to fungicide application, which could directly affect the fungi often found in the stored food and GI tract of healthy bumble bees. Here, we test the hypothesis that fungicides impact bee health by disrupting bee-fungi interactions. We examine the interactive effects of the fungicide propiconazole and fungal supplementation on the survival, reproduction, and microbiome composition of microcolonies (queenless colonies) using two species, Bombus vosnesenskii and B. impatiens. We found that both bee species benefitted from fungi, but were differentially affected by fungicides. In B. vosnesenskii, fungicide exposure decreased survival while fungal supplementation mitigated fungicide effects. For B. impatiens, fungicide application had no effect, but fungal supplementation improved survival and offspring production. Fungicides reduced fungal abundance in B. vosnesenskii microcolonies, but not in B. impatiens, where instead fungal addition decreased fungal abundance. In B. vosnesenskii, the abundance of the pathogen Ascosphaera was negatively associated with survival, while the yeast Zygosaccharomyces was positively associated with survival. Our results highlight species-specific differences in response to fungicides and the nature of bee-fungi associations, and caution the use of results obtained using one species to predict responses of other species. These results demonstrate that fungicides can alter bee-fungi interactions with consequences for bee survival and reproduction, and suggest that exploring the mechanisms of such interactions, including interactions among fungi in the bee GI tract, may offer insights into bumble bee biology and conservation strategies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bee-associated fungi mediate effects of fungicides on bumble bees

Rutkowski

Litsey

Maalouf

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…The potential sublethal effects of acetamiprid on bumblebees were investigated in five out of the nine studies. Chandler et al (2020) reported that the addition of Assail to the syrup over 2 weeks had no significant negative impact on the consumption rate, colony weight, or gyne production in B. impatiens queenright colonies compared to the control. However, they found that there were significantly more small-sized workers in colonies exposed to Assail (either in itself or in mixture with a propiconazole fungicide) than in the control colonies and higher wax moth infestations and densities in colonies that were exposed to the mixture of the two pesticides.…”

Section: Sublethal Effectsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Reid et al (2020) found that regardless of whether mortality was observed after 48 or 72 h, or whether analytic acetamiprid was used by itself or together with a synergist chemical (piperonyl butoxide; PBO), acetamiprid was practically non-toxic in Bombus terrestris audax (Harris 1790) as the applied treatment did not cause sufficient mortality to generate LD 50 (median lethal dose) values even when workers were treated with 100 μg/bee dose of analytical acetamiprid (Figure 3). In Bombus impatiens Cresson, 1863, Chandler et al (2020 monitored mortality for two days after treating workers with a 14.5-µg/bee dose of acetamipridcontaining Assail (30% acetamiprid content) and found that acetamiprid did not affect mortality either by itself or in mixture with a propiconazole fungicide. Sanchez-Bayo and Goka (2014) used LD 50 values obtained from the ECOTOX database to calculate mortality risks under field-realistic exposure conditions and concluded that acetamiprid had a negligible effect on bumblebees in mixture with propiconazole (LD 50 = 0.95 μg/bee, risk (%) ≤ 0.07) or fenbuconazole (LD 50 = 22.2 μg/ bee, risk (%) ≤ 0.01) fungicides.…”

Section: Acute Contact Toxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its half-life in the soil varies greatly among soil types and strongly depends on soil temporal conditions (Gupta et al 2008): it is short (1-8 days) in aerobic soils (EPA 2002), but in clay soils, the degradation takes order of magnitude longer (450 days; Goulson 2013). The application of acetamiprid-containing insecticides at the recommended rates has been shown to provide a potential exposure route to foraging bumblebees (Chandler et al 2020), and its repeated usage in successive years is expected to result in accumulating concentrations in nectar, pollen, and soil (Sanchez-Bayo and Goka 2014; Zioga et al 2020). Continuous and extensive application of acetamiprid can also contaminate wildflowers near agricultural areas (Botías et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is acetamiprid really not that harmful to bumblebees (Apidae: Bombus spp.)?

Varga-Szilay

Tóth

2022

Apidologie

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Due to recent changes in regulation, acetamiprid has become the only neonicotinoid that can be applied without restrictions and in open field cultivations in the EU from 2021. We provide an overview of the current knowledge on the effects of this insecticide on bumblebees and assessed whether available empirical evidence supports the claim that acetamiprid poses negligible risk to these pollinators. We found that there is limited data on the lethal and sublethal effects of this pesticide on bumblebees. While risk assessment results suggest that field-realistic concentrations of acetamiprid have minor acute and chronic toxicity, detrimental sublethal effects, including reduced reproductive output, have been observed when bumblebees were exposed to high doses of this insecticide. We propose that further research on the topic is warranted as the more extensive application of acetamiprid may lead to such high concentrations in the field.

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“…The mite weakened the bees considerably and reduced colony performance and survival [ 97 ]. Similarly, colonies of eastern bumblebees, Bombus impatients (Hymenoptera: Apidae) that pollinated blueberries treated with the neonicotinoid acetamiprid and the fungicide propiconazole had a higher infestation of the wax moth, Vitula edmandsae (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) than colonies of the same bumblebees feeding on non-treated shrubs or treated only with one pesticide [ 98 ]. Areas of East Anglia treated with pesticides had low densities of insect pollinators and a high prevalence of Microsporidia parasites in leaf-cutter bees, Megachile sp.…”

Section: Indirect Effects In Terrestrial Ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indirect Effect of Pesticides on Insects and Other Arthropods

Sánchez‐Bayo

2021

Toxics

124

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Pesticides released to the environment can indirectly affect target and non-target species in ways that are often contrary to their intended use. Such indirect effects are mediated through direct impacts on other species or the physical environment and depend on ecological mechanisms and species interactions. Typical mechanisms are the release of herbivores from predation and release from competition among species with similar niches. Application of insecticides to agriculture often results in subsequent pest outbreaks due to the elimination of natural enemies. The loss of floristic diversity and food resources that result from herbicide applications can reduce populations of pollinators and natural enemies of crop pests. In aquatic ecosystems, insecticides and fungicides often induce algae blooms as the chemicals reduce grazing by zooplankton and benthic herbivores. Increases in periphyton biomass typically result in the replacement of arthropods with more tolerant species such as snails, worms and tadpoles. Fungicides and systemic insecticides also reduce nutrient recycling by impairing the ability of detritivorous arthropods. Residues of herbicides can reduce the biomass of macrophytes in ponds and wetlands, indirectly affecting the protection and breeding of predatory insects in that environment. The direct impacts of pesticides in the environment are therefore either amplified or compensated by their indirect effects.

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Exposure of the Common Eastern Bumble Bee, Bombus impatiens (Cresson), to Sub-lethal Doses of Acetamiprid and Propiconazole in Wild Blueberry

Cited by 17 publications

References 56 publications

Bee-associated fungi mediate effects of fungicides on bumble bees

Bee-associated fungi mediate effects of fungicides on bumble bees

Is acetamiprid really not that harmful to bumblebees (Apidae: Bombus spp.)?

Indirect Effect of Pesticides on Insects and Other Arthropods

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