Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidea) Pollen Forage in a Highly Cultivated Agroecosystem: Limited Diet Diversity and Its Relationship to Virus Resistance.

ABSTRACT: Intensified agriculture reduces natural and seminatural habitats and plant diversity, reducing forage available to honey bees (Apis mellifera L. [Hymenoptera: Apidea]). In agricultural landscapes of Iowa, United States, we studied the impact of extrinsic agricultural intensification on the availability of pollen for honey bees by placing colonies next to soybean fields surrounded by either a low or high level of cultivation. The abundance and diversity of pollen returned to a colony were estimated by placing pollen traps on bee colonies during the summer and fall of 2015 and 2016. We observed no difference in abundance and diversity of pollen collected by colonies in either landscape, but abundance varied over time with significantly less collected in September. We explored if the most com

SUBMITTER: Zhang G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7362718 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature