Journal article
Linking Measures of Colony and Individual Honey Bee Health to Survival among Apiaries Exposed to Varying Agricultural Land Use
PloS one, v 11(3), pp e0152685-e0152685
30 Mar 2016
PMID: 27027871
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
We previously characterized and quantified the influence of land use on survival and productivity of colonies positioned in six apiaries and found that colonies in apiaries surrounded by more land in uncultivated forage experienced greater annual survival, and generally more honey production. Here, detailed metrics of honey bee health were assessed over three years in colonies positioned in the same six apiaries. The colonies were located in North Dakota during the summer months and were transported to California for almond pollination every winter. Our aim was to identify relationships among measures of colony and individual bee health that impacted and predicted overwintering survival of colonies. We tested the hypothesis that colonies in apiaries surrounded by more favorable land use conditions would experience improved health. We modeled colony and individual bee health indices at a critical time point (autumn, prior to overwintering) and related them to eventual spring survival for California almond pollination. Colony measures that predicted overwintering apiary survival included the amount of pollen collected, brood production, and Varroa destructor mite levels. At the individual bee level, expression of vitellogenin, defensin1, and lysozyme2 were important markers of overwinter survival. This study is a novel first step toward identifying pertinent physiological responses in honey bees that result from their positioning near varying landscape features in intensive agricultural environments.
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Details
- Title
- Linking Measures of Colony and Individual Honey Bee Health to Survival among Apiaries Exposed to Varying Agricultural Land Use
- Creators
- Matthew Smart - University of MinnesotaJeff Pettis - United States Department of AgricultureNathan Rice - United States Department of AgricultureZac Browning - Brownings Honey Co, Jamestown, ND USAMarla Spivak - University of Minnesota
- Publication Details
- PloS one, v 11(3), pp e0152685-e0152685
- Publisher
- Public Library Science
- Number of pages
- 28
- Grant note
- 813553; ARS-0425645 / ARS; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); USDA Agricultural Research Service
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Ornithology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000373116500063
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84962690661
- Other Identifier
- 991021903356704721
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InCites Highlights
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Entomology