Pollen nutrition and colony development in honey bees—Part II

Keller, Irene; Fluri, Peter; Imdorf, Anton

doi:10.1080/0005772x.2005.11099650

Cited by 153 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…It should also be noted that bees may not discriminate between differences in food quality, but are rather guided by other floral cues such as odor, presence of other essential nutrients, phago-stimulants, defensive metabolites, and phago-deterrents; which may also explain why they sometimes readily collect toxic pollen [51, 52, 23]. For instance, Hoover et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrient enrichment is associated with altered nectar and pollen chemical composition in Succisa pratensis Moench and increased larval mortality of its pollinator Bombus terrestris L.

et al. 2017

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Pollinators are declining worldwide and possible underlying causes include disease, invasive pest species and large scale land use changes resulting in habitat loss and degradation. One particular cause of habitat degradation is the increased inflow of nutrients due to anthropogenic combustion processes and large scale application of agricultural fertilizers. This nutrient pollution has been shown to affect pollinators through the loss of nectar and pollen-providing plant species. However, it may also affect pollinators through altering the nectar and pollen chemical composition of plant species, hence influencing pollinator food quality. Here, we experimentally investigated the effect of nutrient enrichment on amino acid and sugar composition of nectar and pollen in the grassland plant Sucissa pratensis, and the subsequent colony size and larval mortality of the pollinating bumblebee Bombus terrestris. We found less of the essential amino acids glycine and arginine in the pollen of fertilized plants, and more arginine, ornithine and threonine in the pollen of control plants. Nectar glucose and pollen fructose levels were lower in fertilized plants as compared to control plants. Furthermore, bumblebee colonies visiting fertilized plants showed more dead larvae than colonies visiting control plants. Our results suggest that the fitness of bumblebees can be negatively affected by changes in their food quality following nutrient pollution. If similar patterns hold for other plant and pollinator species, this may have far reaching implications for the maintenance of pollination ecosystem services, as nutrient pollution continues to rise worldwide.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrient enrichment is associated with altered nectar and pollen chemical composition in Succisa pratensis Moench and increased larval mortality of its pollinator Bombus terrestris L.

et al. 2017

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“…In the natural environment, it is well known that the protein content of bee-collected pollen varies considerably among species ( Bell et al 1983 , Roulston and Cane 2000 , Keller et al 2005 ). However, in response to increasing demands for protein, bee colonies regulate the quantity of pollen collected rather than select pollen with a higher protein content ( Pernal and Currie 2000 , Keller et al 2005 ). In addition, there is no evidence that bees prefer to collect pollen containing high levels of protein ( Roulston et al 2000 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Dietary Protein Levels on the Population Growth, Performance, and Physiology of Honey Bee Workers During Early Spring

Zheng

2014

Journal of Insect Science

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This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary protein levels on honey bee colonies, specifically the population growth, physiology, and longevity of honey bee workers during early spring. Diets containing four different levels of crude protein (25.0, 29.5, 34.0, or 38.5%) and pure pollen (control) were evaluated. Twenty-five colonies of honey bees with sister queens were used in the study. We compared the effects of the different bee diets by measuring population growth, emergent worker weight, midgut proteolytic enzyme activity, hypopharyngeal gland development, and survival. After 48 d, the cumulative number of workers produced by the colonies ranged from 22,420 to 29,519, providing a significant fit to a quadratic equation that predicts the maximum population growth when the diet contains 31.7% crude protein. Significantly greater emergent worker weight, midgut proteolytic enzyme activity, hypopharyngeal gland acini, and survival were observed in the colonies that were fed diets containing 34.0% crude protein compared with the other crude protein levels. Although higher emergent worker weight and survival were observed in the colonies that were fed the control diet, there were no significant differences between the control colonies and the colonies that were fed 34.0% crude protein. Based on these results, we concluded that a dietary crude protein content of 29.5–34.0% is recommended to maximize the reproduction rate of honey bee colonies in early spring.

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“…Pollen is also important at the colony level, since it enables the production of jelly by young workers, that is used to feed larvae, the queen, drones and older workers [14,15]. Therefore, a direct consequence of nutritional deficiency (pollen shortage) is a decrease in the colony population [5] and likely a deficient health of individuals, which could also affect the resistance threshold of bees to other stress (pathogens or pesticides) [8,16]. Indeed, pollen intake is known for influencing the physiological metabolism [17,18], immunity [19], the tolerance to pathogens like bacteria [20], virus [21] and microsporidia [22] and reducing the sensitivity to pesticides [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Pollen Nutrition on Honey Bee Health: Do Pollen Quality and Diversity Matter?

Salignon²,

et al. 2013

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Honey bee colonies are highly dependent upon the availability of floral resources from which they get the nutrients (notably pollen) necessary to their development and survival. However, foraging areas are currently affected by the intensification of agriculture and landscape alteration. Bees are therefore confronted to disparities in time and space of floral resource abundance, type and diversity, which might provide inadequate nutrition and endanger colonies. The beneficial influence of pollen availability on bee health is well-established but whether quality and diversity of pollen diets can modify bee health remains largely unknown. We therefore tested the influence of pollen diet quality (different monofloral pollens) and diversity (polyfloral pollen diet) on the physiology of young nurse bees, which have a distinct nutritional physiology (e.g. hypopharyngeal gland development and vitellogenin level), and on the tolerance to the microsporidian parasite Nosema ceranae by measuring bee survival and the activity of different enzymes potentially involved in bee health and defense response (glutathione-S-transferase (detoxification), phenoloxidase (immunity) and alkaline phosphatase (metabolism)). We found that both nurse bee physiology and the tolerance to the parasite were affected by pollen quality. Pollen diet diversity had no effect on the nurse bee physiology and the survival of healthy bees. However, when parasitized, bees fed with the polyfloral blend lived longer than bees fed with monofloral pollens, excepted for the protein-richest monofloral pollen. Furthermore, the survival was positively correlated to alkaline phosphatase activity in healthy bees and to phenoloxydase activities in infected bees. Our results support the idea that both the quality and diversity (in a specific context) of pollen can shape bee physiology and might help to better understand the influence of agriculture and land-use intensification on bee nutrition and health.

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Pollen nutrition and colony development in honey bees—Part II

Cited by 153 publications

References 35 publications

Nutrient enrichment is associated with altered nectar and pollen chemical composition in Succisa pratensis Moench and increased larval mortality of its pollinator Bombus terrestris L.

Nutrient enrichment is associated with altered nectar and pollen chemical composition in Succisa pratensis Moench and increased larval mortality of its pollinator Bombus terrestris L.

The Effects of Dietary Protein Levels on the Population Growth, Performance, and Physiology of Honey Bee Workers During Early Spring

Influence of Pollen Nutrition on Honey Bee Health: Do Pollen Quality and Diversity Matter?

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