No evidence for impaired solitary bee fitness following pre-flowering sulfoxaflor application alone or in combination with a common fungicide in a semi-field experiment

Schwarz, Janine Melanie; Knauer, Anina; Allan, Matthew J.; Dean, Robin; Ghazoul, Jaboury; Tamburini, Giovanni; Wintermantel, Dimitry; Klein, Alexandra‐Maria; Albrecht, Matthias

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2022.107252

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Azoxystrobin residues were found in nectar and pollen from treated crops 68 , 69 and subsequently in the bodies of wild bees 70 . In a semi-field experimental setting, foraging, but not colony growth, was significantly impaired in B. terrestris exposed to Amistar (azoxystrobin 250 g/L SC) 64 , while no lethal or sublethal effects could be observed in honey bees 65 or in O. bicornis 71 . However, a recent study showed that, when formulated as Amistar this pesticide induced acute mortality in bumble bees at high doses, which was attributed to the dietary toxicity of the co-formulant C16-18 alcohol ethoxylates 50 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Intra-specific variation in sensitivity of Bombus terrestris and Osmia bicornis to three pesticides

Linguadoca

Jürison²,

Hellström³

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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There is growing evidence that pesticides may be among the causes of worldwide bee declines, which has resulted in repeated calls for their increased scrutiny in regulatory assessments. One recurring concern is that the current frameworks may be biased towards assessing risks to the honey bee. This paradigm requires extrapolating toxicity information across bee species. Most research effort has therefore focused on quantifying differences in sensitivity across species. However, our understanding of how responses to pesticides may vary within a species is still very poor. Here we take the first steps towards filling this knowledge gap by comparing acute, lethal hazards in sexes and castes of the eusocial bee Bombus terrestris and in sexes of the solitary bee Osmia bicornis after oral and contact exposure to the pesticides sulfoxaflor, Amistar (azoxystrobin) and glyphosate. We show that sensitivity towards pesticides varies significantly both within and across species. Bee weight was a meaningful predictor of pesticide susceptibility. However, weight could not fully explain the observed differences, which suggests the existence of unexplored mechanisms regulating pesticide sensitivity across bee sexes and castes. Our data show that intra-specific responses are an overlooked yet important aspect of the risk assessment of pesticides in bees.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…S3 ), which were used to calculate sensitivity ratios (SR) and relative confidence intervals using the comped function in drc 33 , 34 . Statistical analyses and data visualisation were performed in R 78 using the packages dplyr 79 , drc 71 and ggplot2 80 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intra-specific variation in sensitivity of Bombus terrestris and Osmia bicornis to three pesticides

Linguadoca

Jürison²,

Hellström³

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Bees of the 100 ppb treatment in our study lived for 2-6 days and, again, levels of sulfoxaflor above this concentration have been found in the nectar of some crop flowers up to one week after application (US EPA, 2019). A recent study (Schwarz et al, 2022) in which Phacelia plants were treated with sulfoxaflor before bloom showed levels of 74-129 ppb in pollen 5-8 days after the application. Sulfoxaflor levels in nectar were not measured in that study, but they are usually lower than levels found in pollen (US EPA, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Effects of the Chronic Exposure to the New Insecticide Sulfoxaflor in Combination with an Sdhi Fungicide in a Solitary Bee

Azpiazu¹,

Bosch²,

Martins³

et al. 2022

SSRN Journal

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“…These effects probably resulted from high oral exposure after application as oral toxicity of FPF is relatively high compared to contact toxicity [35] and the percentage of foraging females during application was estimated below 10% compared to full bee flight. As furthermore no chronic effects were found nine days after application, restricting the application of FPF in bee-attractive crops to non-flowering stages could drastically reduce the risk of this insecticide for bees and other flower-visiting insects [61].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutritional stress exacerbates impact of a novel insecticide on solitary bees' behaviour, reproduction and survival

Knauer

Alaux

Allan³

et al. 2022

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Pesticide exposure and food stress are major threats to bees, but their potential synergistic impacts under field-realistic conditions remain poorly understood and are not considered in current pesticide risk assessments. We conducted a semi-field experiment to examine the single and interactive effects of the novel insecticide flupyradifurone (FPF) and nutritional stress on fitness proxies in the solitary bee Osmia bicornis . Individually marked bees were released into flight cages with monocultures of buckwheat, wild mustard or purple tansy, which were assigned to an insecticide treatment (FPF or control) in a crossed design. Nutritional stress, which was high in bees foraging on buckwheat, intermediate on wild mustard and low on purple tansy, modulated the impact of insecticide exposure. Within the first day after application of FPF, mortality of bees feeding on buckwheat was 29 times higher compared with control treatments, while mortality of FPF exposed and control bees was similar in the other two plant species. Moreover, we found negative synergistic impacts of FPF and nutritional stress on offspring production, flight activity, flight duration and flower visitation frequency. These results reveal that environmental policies and risk assessment schemes that ignore interactions among anthropogenic stressors will fail to adequately protect bees and the pollination services they provide.

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No evidence for impaired solitary bee fitness following pre-flowering sulfoxaflor application alone or in combination with a common fungicide in a semi-field experiment

Cited by 12 publications

References 74 publications

Intra-specific variation in sensitivity of Bombus terrestris and Osmia bicornis to three pesticides

Intra-specific variation in sensitivity of Bombus terrestris and Osmia bicornis to three pesticides

Effects of the Chronic Exposure to the New Insecticide Sulfoxaflor in Combination with an Sdhi Fungicide in a Solitary Bee

Nutritional stress exacerbates impact of a novel insecticide on solitary bees' behaviour, reproduction and survival

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