Sublethal behavioral impacts of resource limitation and insecticide exposure reinforce negative fitness outcomes for a solitary bee

Stuligross, Clara; Melone, Grace G; Wang, Li; Williams, Neal M.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161392

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Future studies that chronically expose whole colonies to a combination of pesticides and poor nutrition are required to better understand these key interactions. However, given that the interactions between poor nutrition and pesticide exposure can have significant negative impacts on wild bee fitness [23][24][25][26][27][84][85][86]88], incorporating these key interactions into pesticide risk assessment should be a priority for policymakers interested in creating a more holistic, and field-realistic regulatory process [55,77].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel insecticide impairs bumblebee memory and sucrose responsiveness across high and low nutrition

Gray,

Hulsey,

Siviter

2024

R. Soc. Open Sci.

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Wild bees are important pollinators of crops and wildflowers but are exposed to a myriad of different anthropogenic stressors, such as pesticides and poor nutrition, as a consequence of intensive agriculture. These stressors do not act in isolation, but interact, and may exacerbate one another. Here, we assessed whether a field-realistic concentration of flupyradifurone, a novel pesticide that has been labelled as ‘bee safe’ by regulators, influenced bumblebee sucrose responsiveness and long-term memory. In a fully crossed experimental design, we exposed individual bumblebees ( Bombus impatiens ) to flupyradifurone at high (50% (w/w)) or low (15% (w/w)) sucrose concentrations, replicating diets that are either carbohydrate rich or poor, respectively. We found that flupyradifurone impaired sucrose responsiveness and long-term memory at both sucrose concentrations, indicating that better nutrition did not buffer the negative impact of flupyradifurone. We found no individual impact of sugar deficiency on bee behaviour and no significant interactions between pesticide exposure and poor nutrition. Our results add to a growing body of evidence demonstrating that flupyradifurone has significant negative impacts on pollinators, indicating that this pesticide is not ‘bee safe’. This suggests that agrochemical risk assessments are not protecting pollinators from the unintended consequences of pesticide use.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel insecticide impairs bumblebee memory and sucrose responsiveness across high and low nutrition

Gray,

Hulsey,

Siviter

2024

R. Soc. Open Sci.

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“…Furthermore, studies on Osmia lignaria showed additive effects of food resource stress and insecticide exposure on behaviour (Stuligross et al, 2023), reproduction and survival (Stuligross & Williams, 2020).…”

Section: Diverse Food Sources Could Mitigate the Effects Of Pesticidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A similar result was found for Bombus vosnesenskii colonies, with the negative effects of exposure to common pesticides on reproduction being ameliorated in sites with flower plantings (Rundlöf et al, 2022). Furthermore, studies on Osmia lignaria showed additive effects of food resource stress and insecticide exposure on behaviour (Stuligross et al, 2023), reproduction and survival (Stuligross & Williams, 2020). These findings suggest that an augmented pesticide tolerance of pollinators achieved by access to diverse floral resources is another important reason to increase flower abundance and diversity within crop fields; this means that pesticides and more flowers are better than pesticides and less flowers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Removing non‐crop flowers within orchards promotes the decline of pollinators, not their conservation: A comment on McDougall et al. (2021)

Jodar

Pérez‐Méndez

Botías

et al. 2023

Insect Conserv Diversity

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Abundant and diverse floral resources are needed for the preservation of pollinator populations and the services they provide to human societies. However, pollinators are negatively affected by several agricultural practices, among which pesticide use and ‘weed’ removal stand out. McDougall et al. (2021) published a paper titled ‘Managing orchard groundcover to reduce pollinator foraging post‐bloom’, where they propose removing the within‐field flowering ground vegetation after the mass flowering period of the crop ends, to reduce pesticide exposure. They consider this is a bee conservation strategy, after observing it reduces the abundance and diversity of pollinators within the crop. However, despite assuming this implied a realisation of an expected reduction in pesticide exposure, this was not quantified. Here, we give three main arguments against the proposal of the authors, that is, the need for providing accessible, sufficient, safe and seasonally‐spread feeding resources to crop pollinators, the potential role of diverse floral resources in their pesticide tolerance, and the urgent need to reduce pesticide use and impact in agriculture.

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A sublethal dose of neonicotinoid imidacloprid precisely sensed and detoxified by a C-minus odorant-binding protein 17 highly expressed in the legs of Apis cerana

Qiu

Zhang

et al. 2023

Science of The Total Environment

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Sublethal behavioral impacts of resource limitation and insecticide exposure reinforce negative fitness outcomes for a solitary bee

Cited by 5 publications

References 78 publications

A novel insecticide impairs bumblebee memory and sucrose responsiveness across high and low nutrition

A novel insecticide impairs bumblebee memory and sucrose responsiveness across high and low nutrition

Removing non‐crop flowers within orchards promotes the decline of pollinators, not their conservation: A comment on McDougall et al. (2021)

A sublethal dose of neonicotinoid imidacloprid precisely sensed and detoxified by a C-minus odorant-binding protein 17 highly expressed in the legs of Apis cerana

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