Impact of Stressors on Honey Bees (Apis mellifera; Hymenoptera: Apidae): Some Guidance for Research Emerge from a Meta-Analysis

Havard, Tiphaine; Laurent, Marion; Chauzat, Marie‐Pierre

doi:10.3390/d12010007

Cited by 28 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…When investigating plant protection products, recent attention has mostly been drawn to neonicotinoid insecticides. Fungicides and herbicides are understudied substance classes when it comes to bee health [ 69 , 70 ], as their mode of action does not generally aim to harm insects. Our findings, however, provide evidence that a formulated herbicide can cause sublethal effects at the colony level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic High Glyphosate Exposure Delays Individual Worker Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Development under Field Conditions

Odemer

Alkassab

Bischoff

et al. 2020

Insects

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The ongoing debate about glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) and their implications for beneficial arthropods gives rise to controversy. This research was carried out to cover possible sublethal GBH effects on the brood and colony development, adult survival, and overwintering success of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) under field conditions. Residues in bee relevant matrices, such as nectar, pollen, and plants, were additionally measured. To address these questions, we adopted four independent study approaches. For brood effects and survival, we orally exposed mini-hives housed in the “Kieler mating-nuc” system to sublethal concentrations of 4.8 mg glyphosate/kg (T1, low) and 137.6 mg glyphosate/kg (T2, high) over a period of one brood cycle (21 days). Brood development and colony conditions were assessed after a modified OECD method (No. 75). For adult survival, we weighed and labeled freshly emerged workers from control and exposed colonies and introduced them into non-contaminated mini-hives to monitor their life span for 25 consecutive days. The results from these experiments showed a trivial effect of GBH on colony conditions and the survival of individual workers, even though the hatching weight was reduced in T2. The brood termination rate (BTR) in the T2 treatment, however, was more than doubled (49.84%) when compared to the control (22.11%) or T1 (20.69%). This was surprising as T2 colonies gained similar weight and similar numbers of bees per colony compared to the control, indicating an equal performance. Obviously, the brood development in T2 was not “terminated” as expected by the OECD method terminology, but rather “slowed down” for an unknown period of time. In light of these findings, we suggest that chronic high GBH exposure is capable of significantly delaying worker brood development, while no further detrimental effects seem to appear at the colony level. Against this background, we discuss additional results and possible consequences of GBH for honey bee health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic High Glyphosate Exposure Delays Individual Worker Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Development under Field Conditions

Odemer

Alkassab

Bischoff

et al. 2020

Insects

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…When investigating plant protection products, recent attention has mostly been drawn to neonicotinoid insecticides. Fungicides and herbicides are currently understudied substance classes in a bee health context (Havard et al 2019, Cullen et al 2019). With regard to our findings, however, we find they deserve closer attention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic high glyphosate exposure delays individual worker bee (Apis melliferaL.) development under field conditions

Odemer

Alkassab

Bischoff

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The ongoing debate about glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) and their implications for beneficial arthropods give rise to controversy. This research was carried out to cover possible sublethal GBH effects on brood and colony development, adult survival, and overwintering success of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) under field conditions. Residues in bee relevant matrices such as nectar, pollen and plants were measured in addition. To address these questions, we adopted four independent study approaches. For brood effects and survival, we orally exposed mini-hives housed in the "Kieler mating-nuc" system to sublethal concentrations of 4.8 mg glyphosate/kg (T1, low) and 137.6 mg glyphosate/kg (T2, high) over the period of one brood cycle (21 days). Brood development and colony conditions were assessed after a modified OECD method (No. 75). For adult survival, we weighed and labeled freshly emerged workers from exposed colonies and introduced them into non-contaminated mini-hives to monitor life span for 25 consecutive days. Results from these experiments showed a trivial effect of GBH on colony conditions and survival of individual workers, even though hatching weight was reduced in T2. The brood termination rate (BTR) in the T2 treatment, however, was more than doubled (49.84%) when compared to the control (22.11%) or T1 (20.69%). This was surprising as T2 colonies gained similar weight and similar numbers of bees per colony compared to the control, indicating equal performance. Obviously, the brood development in T2 was not "terminated" as expected by the OECD method terminology but rather "slowed down" for an unknown period of time. In light of these findings, we suggest that chronic high GBH exposure is capable of delaying worker brood development to a significant extent while no further detrimental effects seem to appear at the colony level. Against this background, we discuss additional results and possible consequences of GBH for honey bee health.

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“…Literature searches were conducted from 31 May to 17 June 2019 using Google Scholar and 12–13 August 2020 using Web of Science. Studies were also identified from the citations of three recent review articles and one meta‐analysis on the interactions between pesticides and parasites on the health of Apis mellifera (Collison et al., 2016; Havard et al., 2020; O'Neal et al., 2017; Sánchez‐Bayo et al., 2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parasites and pesticides act antagonistically on honey bee health

Bird

Wilson

Williams

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Pesticides and parasites have each been linked to increased mortality in western honey bees (Apis mellifera). Currently, it is uncertain if one makes the other worse; several studies have tested for potential synergistic stressor effects, but results have been mixed. Here, we use a hierarchical meta‐analysis of 63 experiments from 26 studies to gain a clearer view of the combined effects of parasites and pesticides on honey bee health. We found that combined pesticide–parasite treatments do tend to be deadlier than uncombined treatments but are significantly less deadly than predicted additive or multiplicative effects. In other words, combined treatment effects are not synergistic, but antagonistic. Much of the previous uncertainty about the combined effects of pesticides and parasites on honey bee health can be attributed to a bias in the previous research against stressor antagonism; many researchers have excluded the possibility of antagonism a priori. Synthesis and applications. Meta‐analysis shows that when honey bees are stressed by a combination of pesticides and parasites, the combined stress effect is antagonistic, that is, less than the sum of its parts. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying this antagonism could prove critical for effective management of honey bee health.

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Impact of Stressors on Honey Bees (Apis mellifera; Hymenoptera: Apidae): Some Guidance for Research Emerge from a Meta-Analysis

Cited by 28 publications

References 38 publications

Chronic High Glyphosate Exposure Delays Individual Worker Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Development under Field Conditions

Chronic High Glyphosate Exposure Delays Individual Worker Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Development under Field Conditions

Chronic high glyphosate exposure delays individual worker bee (Apis melliferaL.) development under field conditions

Parasites and pesticides act antagonistically on honey bee health

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