Landscape factors influencing honey bee colony behavior in Southern California commercial apiaries

Meikle, William G.; Weiss, Milagra; Beren, Eli

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-61716-6

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Environmental variability among experiments may have made effects due to pesticide exposure harder to detect. Results from MS 2018 were consistent with studies conducted in the southern half of the U.S. that have shown higher growth rates, better thermoregulation and lower pathogen loads for bee colonies kept in landscapes with some agriculture compared to those kept in other landscapes (urban, peri-urban, or completely unmanaged, depending on the study) 53 – 55 . The amount of agriculture within a 1.8 km radius of the Mississippi site was not high, but the density and diversity of honey bee forage was clearly higher than in southern Arizona.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Sublethal concentrations of clothianidin affect honey bee colony growth and hive CO2 concentration

Meikle

Adamczyk²,

Weiss

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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The effects of agricultural pesticide exposure upon honey bee colonies is of increasing interest to beekeepers and researchers, and the impact of neonicotinoid pesticides in particular has come under intense scrutiny. To explore potential colony-level effects of a neonicotinoid pesticide at field-relevant concentrations, honey bee colonies were fed 5- and 20-ppb concentrations of clothianidin in sugar syrup while control colonies were fed unadulterated syrup. Two experiments were conducted in successive years at the same site in southern Arizona, and one in the high rainfall environment of Mississippi. Across all three experiments, adult bee masses were about 21% lower among colonies fed 20-ppb clothianidin than the untreated control group, but no effects of treatment on brood production were observed. Average daily hive weight losses per day in the 5-ppb clothianidin colonies were about 39% lower post-treatment than in the 20-ppb clothianidin colonies, indicating lower consumption and/or better foraging, but the dry weights of newly-emerged adult bees were on average 6–7% lower in the 5-ppb group compared to the other groups, suggesting a nutritional problem in the 5-ppb group. Internal hive CO2 concentration was higher on average in colonies fed 20-ppb clothianidin, which could have resulted from greater CO2 production and/or reduced ventilating activity. Hive temperature average and daily variability were not affected by clothianidin exposure but did differ significantly among trials. Clothianidin was found to be, like imidacloprid, highly stable in honey in the hive environment over several months.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Sublethal concentrations of clothianidin affect honey bee colony growth and hive CO2 concentration

Meikle

Adamczyk²,

Weiss

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…Different landscape factors and pesticide exposure can influence colony thermoregulation. , In this study, we found that differences in hive temperature data corresponded to feed manipulations in a commercial beekeeping operation. This finding highlights the potential of sensor data to inform future studies and management practices related to supplemental feeding, especially in large-scale beekeeping operations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Efficacy of a Microalgal Feed Additive in Commercial Honey Bee Colonies Used for Crop Pollination

McMenamin,

Weiss,

Meikle

et al. 2023

ACS Agric. Sci. Technol.

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Honey bees are experiencing nutritional deficiencies related to intensive agriculture and climate change, posing major threats to the ecosystem services they provide. Colonies managed for crop pollination are fed artificial diets to offset reduced pollen in the environment and to stimulate population growth. Here, we evaluated the effects of a spirulina microalga feed additive on commercial honey bee colonies in an agriculturally intensive desert environment. One hundred honey bee colonies were used in a randomized block design that was replicated at two apiary sites over 4 months leading up to spring almond pollination. Colonies were fed a pollen-free artificial diet or the same diet containing 25% spirulina. Unfed colonies were randomly assigned within treatment blocks as controls. We measured colony population size, brood production, thermoregulation, and a panel of molecular biomarkers associated with nutritional status, stress responses, and gut microbiota. Hive brood imaging and continuous temperature data enabled sensitive detection of diet treatment effects. Spirulina feed significantly improved brood production and thermoregulation prior to almond pollination relative to unfed controls. Bees fed spirulina had distinct expression profiles of nutrition and stress response genes, but gene expression was primarily driven by the apiary site. We conclude that spirulina is a sustainable feed additive with potential to improve crop pollination efficiency by supporting larger, healthier honey bee colonies.

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“…Two of these experiments were located in Sydney, Australia, and received an experimental treatment (pesticide or control, food stores removal or control) to reproduce environmental stress, while in the third experiment hives were located in California, USA and not subject to any treatments but were dispatched in different crops and were managed independently by a beekeeper 19 .…”

Section: Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early warnings of bee colony failure

Colin,

Dakos,

Barron

et al. 2024

Preprint

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How to identify ecological systems at risk of failure is a central question of modern biology and agriculture. Due to human impacts and global change, there is a growing need for early warning signals that identify when an ecological system is at risk of a state change before those changes become irreversible or extremely complex and costly to remediate. Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are an urgent case because our food crops heavily rely on them for pollination and annual bee colony losses reported by beekeepers across the globe are unsustainable. Given enough warning, beekeepers can rescue dying colonies, but early warning signals of death for individual bee colonies are lacking. Here we used early warning signals to investigate whether fluctuations and dynamical patterns in internal hive temperature can be used as an early indicator of impending colony failure. Across three distinct datasets we found that temperature regulation of failing colonies was different enough to distinguish them from healthy colonies weeks before they died. This signal comes early enough to intervene and assist colonies with standard beekeeping practices. Our study shows that early warning theory can help to identify practical signals of risk of state change even in systems that change state relatively rapidly, such as a dying bee colony, early enough to intervene and prevent losses.

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Landscape factors influencing honey bee colony behavior in Southern California commercial apiaries

Cited by 16 publications

References 39 publications

Sublethal concentrations of clothianidin affect honey bee colony growth and hive CO2 concentration

Sublethal concentrations of clothianidin affect honey bee colony growth and hive CO2 concentration

Efficacy of a Microalgal Feed Additive in Commercial Honey Bee Colonies Used for Crop Pollination

Early warnings of bee colony failure

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