Identities, concentrations, and sources of pesticide exposure in pollen collected by managed bees during blueberry pollination.

ABSTRACT: Bees are critical for crop pollination, but there is limited information on levels and sources of pesticide exposure in commercial agriculture. We collected pollen from foraging honey bees and bumble bees returning to colonies placed in blooming blueberry fields with different management approaches (conventional, organic, unmanaged) and located across different landscape settings to determine how these factors affect pesticide exposure. We also identified the pollen and analyzed whether pesticide exposure was correlated with corbicular load composition. Across 188 samples collected in 2 years, we detected 80 of the 259 pesticide active ingredients (AIs) screened for using a modified QuEChERS method. Detections included 28 fungicides, 26 insecticides, and 21 herbicides. All samples containe

SUBMITTER: Graham KK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8377133 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature