Temporal variation in production and nutritional value of pollen used in the diet of Apis mellifera L. in a seasonal semideciduous forest

Abstract

The flora of mountain formations in the Caatinga biome is composed predominantly by semi-deciduous species with representatives of both Atlantic and Amazon forest. Information on the potential for bee pollen production of these species is limited. In this study we evaluated the potential of production, the temporal variation, the botanical origin and the nutritional value of bee pollen produced in a seasonal semideciduous forest in northeastern Brazil. We identified a total of 252 flowering plant species throughout the year. The diet of Apis mellifera consisted of 74 pollen types distributed in 58 genera and 27 families. We identified two production peaks of bee pollen, the highest occurring in the rainy season. Nutritional value considering crude protein, carbohydrates, lipids and mineral matter changed over the study period, with influence of rainfall on the dry matter level. Some taxonomic groups of plants showed a strong relationship with nutrients, suggesting that although the diet of A. mellifera is broadly diversified, this species devoted most of its pollen foraging effort on the genus Mimosa and the palm tree species of Attalea speciosa. The results show that the seasonal semideciduous forest of the mountain range in the Northeast Brazil presents plant species: Mimosa caesalpiniifolia, Baccharis trinervis, Mimosa tenuiflora Myracrodruom urundeuva, Cecropia pachystachya, Attalea speciosa, with high nutritional level and potential for the pollen production.

Effects of landscape structure and climate seasonality on pollen intake by honeybees in Neotropical highland agroecosystems

“…absence of flowering by many forest species (Parada-Quintero et al, 2012). Such a relationship between precipitation and pollen foraging, however, should not be generalized to other Neotropical regions with drier weather conditions, such as in northern Brazil, for example, where peaks of flowering and pollen gathering by honeybees were registered during the rainy season (Nascimento et al, 2019). An interaction between precipitation and landscape diversity demonstrated, however, that overall pollen diversity decreased with precipitation only in landscapes with low diversity, whereas it tended to increase with precipitation in complex landscapes (Fig.…”

“…How honeybees use pollen resources among different spatial and temporal conditions in tropical regions has been barely studied. Most such studies have been local and descriptive (e. g. Nates Parra et al, 1987;Villanueva, 2002;Barth et al, 2011;Chamorro-García et al, 2013;Chamorro et al, 2017;Nascimento et al, 2019) and, to the extent of our knowledge, there has been no study that explicitly related landscape structure and climate seasonality to pollen intake by honeybees on a regional scale. This issue is of particular concern in the Neotropics where foraging patterns of introduced honeybees have the potential to negatively impact native pollinators through competition and the pollination of native plant species (Vanbergen et al, 2018).…”

Nicho polínico de Apis mellifera L. na Caatinga durante a floração de Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.) Poiret

“…Com relação à caracterização do conteúdo mineral do pólen da jurema preta, Nascimento et al (2019) verificaram que o pólen desta espécie possui concentração elevada de minerais totais em sua composição, sendo de aproximadamente 7% no período em que os grãos de pólen foram predominantes. Apesar de os nutrientes nos grãos de pólen variarem de acordo com as características climáticas, solo e outros fatores (Nogueira et al, 2012), estes valores demonstram que o pólen da jurema preta é rico em minerais (2,4%) e a presença dos grãos de pólen de plantas do gênero Mimosa apresentam em média 27,39%, quando há dominância do pólen de M. tenuiflora, sendo importante na manutenção da dieta de A. mellifera e na alimentação das larvas (Nascimento et al, 2019).…”

“…A jurema preta, no entanto, foi considerada como fonte de pólen predominante dentre os tipos polínicos coletados por A. mellifera na região semiárida no segundo semestre do ano. Desta forma, esta espécie é importante para a manutenção da dieta das abelhas, principalmente durante o período seco do ano (Silva Filho et al, 2010;Silva e Santos, 2014;Costa et al, 2015;Silva et al, 2015;Nascimento et al, 2019).…”

Variação temporal na dieta, valor nutricional e produção do pólen coletado por Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) em área de caatinga

“…Apesar da grande variação no valor nutricional do pólen apícola obtido em uma área de Caatinga no município de Serra Talhada-PE, os percentuais estão dentro de valores encontrados no Brasil e em outros países (Yang et al,2013;Negrão et al, 2014;Sattle et al, 2015;Nascimento et al, 2019), bem como, estão de acordo com as exigências estabelecidas pelo regulamento técnico brasileiro do Ministério da Agricultura Pecuária e Abastecimento-MAPA, através da Instrução Normativa nº 3, de 19 de janeiro de 2001, que estabelece os Research, Society and Development, v. 9, n. 9, e563997529, 2020 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v9i9.7529 seguintes valores para a comercialização de pólen no Brasil: proteína bruta mínima de 8% e extrato etéreo mínimo de 1,8% (MAPA, 2001).…”