How Hives Collapse: Allee Effects, Ecological Resilience, and the Honey Bee.

ABSTRACT: We construct a mathematical model to quantify the loss of resilience in collapsing honey bee colonies due to the presence of a strong Allee effect. In the model, recruitment and mortality of adult bees have substantial social components, with recruitment enhanced and mortality reduced by additional adult bee numbers. The result is an Allee effect, a net per-individual rate of hive increase that increases as a function of adult bee numbers. The Allee effect creates a critical minimum size in adult bee numbers, below which mortality is greater than recruitment, with ensuing loss of viability of the hive. Under ordinary and favorable environmental circumstances, the critical size is low, and hives remain large, sending off viably-sized swarms (naturally or through beekeeping management) when

SUBMITTER: Dennis B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4765896 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature