The impact of mass-flowering crops on bee pathogen dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Nearly two fifths of the Earth's land area is currently used for agriculture, substantially impacting the environment and ecosystems. Besides the direct impact through land use change, intensive agriculture can also have an indirect impact, for example by changing wildlife epidemiology. We review here the potential effects of mass-flowering crops (MFCs), which are rapidly expanding in global cropping area, on the epidemiology of known pathogens in bee pollinators. We bring together the fifty MFCs with largest global area harvested and give an overview of their pollination dependency as well as their impact on bee pollinators. When in bloom these crops provide an abundance of flowers, which can provide nutrition for bees and increase bee reproduction. After their short bloom peak, however,

SUBMITTER: Tuerlings T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9108762 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature