Metal concentrations around thermal power plants, rural and urban areas using honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) as bioindicators

Abstract

Honeybees are great bioindicators because they cover wide areas during their foraging activity. Our study included industrial, urban and rural region, where samples were taken in July and September. Industrial region with three apiaries in the area covered two thermal power plants, Kostolac A and B. Two apiaries covered a wide urban region of Belgrade, and the rural region consisting of mainly agricultural-woodland area near village Mesić was covered with one apiary. Aim of this study was to investigate the capability of bees as bioindicators to detect different concentrations of metals in foraging regions, during two sampling periods, and to compare concentrations of Al, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Sr and Zn found in their bodies. Significant differences were detected for Al, Ba, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, and Ni between at least two analyzed regions. Significant differences in concentrations between sampling dates were found for Al, Ba, Co, Cr and Fe in at least one of the locations. For Cd, Mn, Na, Pb, Sr and Zn, no significant differences were found between locations or sampling dates, suggesting equal and stable levels of concentration for these elements in the environment.

Identification of a metallothionein gene in honey bee Apis mellifera and its expression profile in response to Cd, Cu and Pb exposure

“…The increased induction of the AmMT gene in honey bees raised in an industrial area with heavy metal industry (Figure b) could be linked to elevated concentrations of heavy metal ions originating from the environment. Honey bees are excellent bioindicators of heavy metals in the environment (Zarić, Ilijević, Stanisavljević, & Gržetić, ) and can reflect the contamination of plants, soil, air and water in the areas that are covered by their foraging activities (Sadeghi, Mozafari, Bahmanim, & Shokri, ). Data showing higher concentrations of Cd and Pb in the air in Zajača in comparison with Belgrade, taken from an annual report of Environmental Protection Agency, Republic of Serbia are given in Table .…”

Honey from Stingless Bee as Indicator of Contamination with Metals

“…Vehicle traffic is one of the main pollution sources in urban centers (Silva et al, 2014). The presence of Cu in urban areas is generally explained by anthropogenic and industrial activities, and brake pads from motor vehicles are considered a significant Cu source (Zarić et al, 2016).…”

“…have investigated metal concentration in the body of bees and in their products (Porrini et al, 2003;Batista et al, 2012;Pohl et al, 2012;Bastías et al, 2013;Aghamirlou et al, 2015;Nascimento et al, 2015;Martin et al, 2016;Steen et al, 2016;Zarić et al, 2016;Bonsucesso et al, 2018). However, our study is the first carried out in an industrial urban area using honey of Melipona scutellaris Latreille, a stingless bee, as an indicator of environmental quality.…”

Use of honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) as bioindicators of spatial variations and origin determination of metal pollution in Serbia

“…In our preliminary research the honeybees from this region have proven to have higher concentration of these two elements compared to urban and agricultural-woodland regions. 27 Ba and Sr had significantly higher concentrations in MS compared to PABA (Table II, Fig. S-5).…”