A 'Landscape physiology' approach for assessing bee health highlights the benefits of floral landscape enrichment and semi-natural habitats.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how anthropogenic landscape alteration affects populations of ecologically- and economically-important insect pollinators has never been more pressing. In this context, the assessment of landscape quality typically relies on spatial distribution studies, but, whether habitat-restoration techniques actually improve the health of targeted pollinator populations remains obscure. This gap could be filled by a comprehensive understanding of how gradients of landscape quality influence pollinator physiology. We therefore used this approach for honey bees (Apis mellifera) to test whether landscape patterns can shape bee health. We focused on the pre-wintering period since abnormally high winter colony losses have often been observed. By exposing colonies to different landscapes, enr

SUBMITTER: Alaux C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5234012 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature