Temporal Patterns of Honeybee Foraging in a Diverse Floral Landscape Revealed Using Pollen DNA Metabarcoding of Honey.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the plants pollinators use through the year is vital to support pollinator populations and mitigate for declines in floral resources due to habitat loss. DNA metabarcoding allows the temporal picture of nectar and pollen foraging to be examined in detail. Here, we use DNA metabarcoding to examine the forage use of honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) within a florally diverse landscape within the UK, documenting the key forage plants used and seasonal progression over two years. The total number of plant taxa detected in the honey was 120, but only 16 of these were found with a high relative read abundance of DNA, across the main foraging months (April-September). Only a small proportion of the available flowering genera in the landscape were used by the honeybees. The greatest rela

SUBMITTER: Jones L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9405717 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature