Honey bee nutritional ecology: From physiology to landscapes

Quinlan, Gabriela M.; Grozinger, Christina M.

doi:10.1016/bs.aiip.2023.01.003

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 312 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Many consecutive days of summer rain may decrease survival by reducing bee foraging, leading to reduced brood production and less food stored for winter. Our finding that spring, autumn, and winter precipitation supports higher survival is consistent with Switanek et al (2017) , which found that across all seasons, precipitation was linked to higher winter survival, but contrasts with other recent work showing that above-normal spring precipitation is linked to higher mortality ( Quinlan et al 2023 , Quinlan and Grozinger 2023 ) possibly due to spring rain encouraging grasses, but not flowering plants. Furthermore, we found that winter temperature and survival had a nonlinear relationship, with high and low winter temperatures increasing colony loss.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 60%

Effective pest management approaches can mitigate honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony winter loss across a range of weather conditions in small-scale, stationary apiaries

Gray,

Goslee,

Kammerer

et al. 2024

Journal of Insect Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Managed honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies in North America and Europe have experienced high losses in recent years, which have been linked to weather conditions, lack of quality forage, and high parasite loads, particularly the obligate brood parasite, Varroa destructor. These factors may interact at various scales to have compounding effects on honey bee health, but few studies have been able to simultaneously investigate the effects of weather conditions, landscape factors, and management of parasites. We analyzed a dataset of 3,210 survey responses from beekeepers in Pennsylvania from 2017 to 2022 and combined these with remotely sensed weather variables and novel datasets about seasonal forage availability into a Random Forest model to investigate drivers of winter loss. We found that beekeepers who used treatment against Varroa had higher colony survival than those who did not treat. Moreover, beekeepers who used multiple types of Varroa treatment had higher colony survival rates than those who used 1 type of treatment. Our models found weather conditions are strongly associated with survival, but multiple-treatment type colonies had higher survival across a broader range of climate conditions. These findings suggest that the integrated pest management approach of combining treatment types can potentially buffer managed honey bee colonies from adverse weather conditions.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 60%

Effective pest management approaches can mitigate honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony winter loss across a range of weather conditions in small-scale, stationary apiaries

Gray,

Goslee,

Kammerer

et al. 2024

Journal of Insect Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Large-scale monocultures, coupled with deforestation of native vegetation, result in reduced availability of pollen and nectar (Vaudo et al, 2015). Though some crops provide pollen, the amino acid composition of pollen from a single species may not meet the nutritional demands of the bees (Behmer, 2009;Brodschneider and Crailsheim, 2010), leading to malnutrition and increased susceptibility to environmental stressors (Tadei et al, 2020;Quinlan and Grozinger, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bixafen, Prothioconazole, and Trifloxystrobin Alone or in Combination Affect Health Related Gene Expression in Honey Bees from Nutritionally Deprived versus Protein Supplemented Colonies

Kato,

Freitas,

Gomes

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether alterations in food availability compromise the metabolic homeostasis of honey bees exposed to three fungicides alone or together. Ten honey bee colonies were utilized, with half receiving energy-protein supplementation for 15 weeks while another five colonies had their protein supply reduced with pollen traps. Subsequently, forager bees were collected and exposed by contact to 1 or 7 µg of bixafen, prothioconazole, and trifloxystrobin, either individually or in combination. After 48 hours, abdomens without the intestine was used for the analysis of expression of antioxidant genes (SOD-1, CAT, and GPX-1), detoxification genes (GST-1 and CYP306A1), the storage protein gene vitellogenin, and immune system antimicrobial peptide genes (Defensin-1, Abaecin, Hymenoptaecin, and Apidaecin), through real-time PCR. All pesticide treatments induced changes in gene expression, with bixafen showing the most prominent upregulation. Exposure to 1 µg of each of the three pesticides resulted in upregulation of genes associated with detoxification and nutrition processes, and downregulation of immune system genes. When the three pesticides were combined at a dose of 7 µg each, there was a pronounced downregulation of all genes. Dietary supplementation led to a slight reduction in gene expression alterations provoked by the fungicides.

show abstract

Examining spatial and temporal drivers of pollinator nutritional resources: evidence from five decades of honey bee colony productivity data

Quinlan,

Miller,

Grozinger

2023

Environ. Res. Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pollinators are an essential component of terrestrial food webs and agricultural systems but are threatened by insufficient access to floral resources. Managed honey bees, as generalist foragers that hoard nectar as honey, can act as bioindicators of floral resources available to pollinators in a given landscape through their accumulation of honey. Honey yields across the United States have decreased appreciably since the 1990s, concurrent with shifts in climate, land-use, and large-scale pesticide application. While many factors can affect honey accumulation, this suggests that anthropogenic stressors may be having large-scale impacts on the floral resources that pollinators depend on for their nutrition. We used hierarchical partitioning on five decades of state-level data to parse the most important environmental factors and likely mechanisms associated with spatial and temporal variation in honey yields across the U.S.. Climatic conditions and soil productivity were among the most important variables for estimating honey yields, with states in warm or cool regions with productive soils having the highest honey yields per colony. These findings suggest that foundational factors constrain pollinator habitat suitability and define ecoregions of low or high honey production. The most important temporally varying factors were change in herbicide use, land use (i.e., increase in intensive agriculture and reduction in land conservation programs that support pollinators) and annual weather anomalies. This study provides insights into the interplay between broad abiotic conditions and fine temporal variation on habitat suitability for honey bees and other pollinators. Our results also provide a baseline for investigating how these factors influence floral resource availability, which is essential to developing strategies for resilient plant-pollinator communities in the face of global change.

show abstract

Honey bee nutritional ecology: From physiology to landscapes

Cited by 5 publications

References 312 publications

Effective pest management approaches can mitigate honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony winter loss across a range of weather conditions in small-scale, stationary apiaries

Effective pest management approaches can mitigate honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony winter loss across a range of weather conditions in small-scale, stationary apiaries

Bixafen, Prothioconazole, and Trifloxystrobin Alone or in Combination Affect Health Related Gene Expression in Honey Bees from Nutritionally Deprived versus Protein Supplemented Colonies

Examining spatial and temporal drivers of pollinator nutritional resources: evidence from five decades of honey bee colony productivity data

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About