Honey bee-collected pollen in agro-ecosystems reveals diet diversity, diet quality, and pesticide exposure.

ABSTRACT: European honey bees Apis mellifera are important commercial pollinators that have suffered greater than normal overwintering losses since 2007 in North America and Europe. Contributing factors likely include a combination of parasites, pesticides, and poor nutrition. We examined diet diversity, diet nutritional quality, and pesticides in honey bee-collected pollen from commercial colonies in the Canadian Maritime Provinces in spring and summer 2011. We sampled pollen collected by honey bees at colonies in four site types: apple orchards, blueberry fields, cranberry bogs, and fallow fields. Proportion of honey bee-collected pollen from crop versus noncrop flowers was high in apple, very low in blueberry, and low in cranberry sites. Pollen nutritional value tended to be relatively goo

SUBMITTER: Colwell MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5606875 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature