The impact of pollen quality on the sensitivity of bumblebees to pesticides

Barraud, Alexandre; Vanderplanck, Maryse; Nadarajah, Sugahendni; Michez, Denis

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2020.103552

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The presence of natural habitat in the landscape is known to buffer the negative effects of insecticide use [ 13 , 14 ]. However, few studies have experimentally manipulated supplemental forage and insecticide use in tandem (but see [ 15 , 16 ]), and these mostly employ controlled laboratory experiments that do not resemble a natural foraging arena [ 17 , 18 ]. Virtually, all of the existing work in this area also employs artificial feeders that titrate insecticides or nutritional resources via sugar water rather than simulating actual exposure routes and concentrations that a bee encounters while foraging in the field [ 19 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supplemental forage ameliorates the negative impact of insecticides on bumblebees in a pollinator-dependent crop

et al. 2021

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Insecticide use and insufficient forage are two of the leading stressors to pollinators in agroecosystems. While these factors have been well studied individually, the experimental designs do not reflect real-world conditions where insecticide exposure and lack of forage occur simultaneously and could interactively suppress pollinator health. Using outdoor enclosures, we tested the effects of insecticides (imidacloprid + lambda-cyhalothrin) and non-crop forage (clover) in a factorial design, measuring the survival, behaviour and performance of bumblebees ( Bombus impatiens ), as well as pollination of the focal crop, watermelon. Colony survival was synergistically reduced to 17% in watermelon alone + insecticides (survival was 100% in all other treatments). However, behavioural shifts in foraging were mainly owing to insecticides (e.g. 95% reduced visitation rate to watermelon flowers), while impacts on hive performance were primarily driven by clover presence (e.g. 374% increase in the number of live eggs). Insecticide-mediated reductions in foraging decreased crop pollination (fruit set) by 32%. Altogether, these data indicate that both insecticides and non-crop forage play integral roles in shaping pollinator health in agricultural landscapes, but the relative importance and interaction of these two factors depend on which aspect of ‘health’ is being considered.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supplemental forage ameliorates the negative impact of insecticides on bumblebees in a pollinator-dependent crop

et al. 2021

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“…More recently, Crone & Grozinger [33] found that artificial and pollen diets characterized by different protein to lipid ratios can influence the survival time of bees chronically exposed to chlorpyrifos. Endpoints other than mortality rate have been used to assess the influence of pollen quality and availability on pesticide sensitivity in honeybees (development of feeding glands [34]), as well as in bumblebees (micro-colony performance, nest founding [35][36][37]) and Osmia (reproduction [38]); however, these studies generally reported a lack of interactions between these two factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides

et al. 2021

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A reduction in floral resource abundance and diversity is generally observed in agro-ecosystems, along with widespread exposure to pesticides. Therefore, a better understanding on how the availability and quality of pollen diets can modulate honeybee sensitivity to pesticides is required. For that purpose, we evaluated the toxicity of acute exposure and chronic exposures to field realistic and higher concentrations of azoxystrobin (fungicide) and sulfoxaflor (insecticide) in honeybees provided with pollen diets of differing qualities (named S and BQ pollens). We found that pollen intake reduced the toxicity of the acute doses of pesticides. Contrary to azoxystrobin, chronic exposures to sulfoxaflor increased by 1.5- to 12-fold bee mortality, which was reduced by pollen intake. Most importantly, the risk of death upon exposure to a high concentration of sulfoxaflor was significantly lower for the S pollen diet when compared with the BQ pollen diet. This reduced pesticide toxicity was associated with a higher gene expression of vitellogenin, a glycoprotein that promotes bee longevity, a faster sulfoxaflor metabolization and a lower concentration of the phytochemical p -coumaric acid, known to upregulate detoxification enzymes. Thus, our study revealed that pollen quality can influence the ability of bees to metabolize pesticides and withstand their detrimental effects, providing another strong argument for the restoration of suitable foraging habitat.

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“…Different threats have been identified to explain the global decline of bumblebees. For several years, many studies have explored effects of microbiota, diet, temperature, and pesticide exposure on bumblebee's health in lab conditions (Gill and Raine, 2014;Vanderplanck et al, 2019;Barraud et al, 2020;Rothman et al, 2020;Maebe et al, 2021a;Oyen et al, 2021). However, most of these studies used commercially available bumblebee species (i.e., Bombus impatiens in North America and B. terrestris in Europe, and Bombus hypocrita in Asia) which are known to be tolerant and resistant to environmental changes (Oyen and Dillon, 2018;Maebe et al, 2021b;Martinet et al, 2021a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Heat Stress on Mating Behavior and Colony Development in Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

et al. 2021

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Climate change is related to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as heatwaves. In insect pollinators, heat exposure is associated with direct physiological perturbations, and in several species, could lead to a decrease of fitness related to a decrease in fertility. Here we developed a new experimental protocol in controlled conditions to assess if the exposure to high temperatures could modify the attractiveness and fertility of Bombus terrestris males. Our results show that virgin queens of B. terrestris do not have preferences between the pheromonal secretions of heat-exposed and control males. Moreover, mating with a heat-exposed male has no impact on the copulation behavior and the development of the nest (brood composition). We advise to extend trials to cover a range of wild and heat-sensitive species on multiple generations to better understand the impact of heat waves on the bumblebee communities.

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The impact of pollen quality on the sensitivity of bumblebees to pesticides

Cited by 17 publications

References 67 publications

Supplemental forage ameliorates the negative impact of insecticides on bumblebees in a pollinator-dependent crop

Supplemental forage ameliorates the negative impact of insecticides on bumblebees in a pollinator-dependent crop

Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides

Effects of Heat Stress on Mating Behavior and Colony Development in Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

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