Mercury accumulation in honey bees trends upward with urbanization in the USA

Abstract

Urbanization has profound implications for associated ecosystems and organisms. Monitoring pollutants inform risk assessments for human and wildlife health. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) forage widely and collect food from many sources. Thus, they may be a robust integrator of environmental pollutants. Here, we collected honey bees from 10 different locations across the United States to quantify their content of total mercury (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg). Although our limited sample size prevented a meaningful statistical evaluation, we found that bees from urbanized areas had higher THg than those from rural areas, with suburban samples intermediate. The MeHg concentrations in all samples were below the detection limit. Despite its limited scope, this first preliminary dataset on Hg levels in honey bees across the United States suggests that urbanization may play a role in increasing Hg exposure to these pollinators, and that honey bees may be a useful biomonitor of the environmental presence of chemical pollutants.

Biodiversity and Challenges of Honey Bee Population in Pakistan

“…Similar to other chemical exposures, a multitude of intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence the exposure and impact of these pollutants on honey bees. The abundance of pollutants positively increases the risk of exposure, for example, heavy metal pollution of the environment has increased with the urbanization of geographical areas and the same trend has been observed in the accumulation of Pb in honey bees [64]. However, the uptake of different toxic elements by honey bees can vary even within the same hive [11].…”

One Health the Focus of New Collection of Papers

“…They found that rice from these farms poses low risk for consumers and note the importance of testing under different soil conditions. A preliminary study by Waiker et al. (2022) shows a connection between urbanization and mercury levels in honey bees. The authors suggest that these pollinators may be useful biomonitors of mercury pollution.…”