Dataset Information

Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes.

ABSTRACT: Sustainable agriculture requires balancing crop yields with the effects of pesticides on non-target organisms, such as bees and other crop pollinators. Field studies demonstrated that agricultural use of neonicotinoid insecticides can negatively affect wild bee species^1,2, leading to restrictions on these compounds³. However, besides neonicotinoids, field-based evidence of the effects of landscape pesticide exposure on wild bees is lacking. Bees encounter many pesticides in agricultural landscapes^4-9 and the effects of this landscape exposure on colony growth and development of any bee species remains unknown. Here we show that the many pesticides found in bumble bee-collected pollen are associated with reduced colony performance during crop bloom, especially in simplified landscapes with intensive agricultural practices. Our results from 316 Bombus terrestris colonies at 106 agricultural sites across eight European countries confirm that the regulatory system fails to sufficiently prevent pesticide-related impacts on non-target organisms, even for a eusocial pollinator species in which colony size may buffer against such impacts^10,11. These findings support the need for postapproval monitoring of both pesticide exposure and effects to confirm that the regulatory process is sufficiently protective in limiting the collateral environmental damage of agricultural pesticide use.

SUBMITTER: Nicholson CC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11006599 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes.

Nicholson Charlie C CC Knapp Jessica J Kiljanek Tomasz T Albrecht Matthias M Chauzat Marie-Pierre MP Costa Cecilia C De la Rúa Pilar P Klein Alexandra-Maria AM Mänd Marika M Potts Simon G SG Schweiger Oliver O Bottero Irene I Cini Elena E de Miranda Joachim R JR Di Prisco Gennaro G Dominik Christophe C Hodge Simon S Kaunath Vera V Knauer Anina A Laurent Marion M Martínez-López Vicente V Medrzycki Piotr P Pereira-Peixoto Maria Helena MH Raimets Risto R Schwarz Janine M JM Senapathi Deepa D Tamburini Giovanni G Brown Mark J F MJF Stout Jane C JC Rundlöf Maj M

Nature 20231129 8007

Sustainable agriculture requires balancing crop yields with the effects of pesticides on non-target organisms, such as bees and other crop pollinators. Field studies demonstrated that agricultural use of neonicotinoid insecticides can negatively affect wild bee species<sup>1,2</sup>, leading to restrictions on these compounds<sup>3</sup>. However, besides neonicotinoids, field-based evidence of the effects of landscape pesticide exposure on wild bees is lacking. Bees encounter many pesticides in ...[more]

PMID: 38030722

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Project description:Bees are a functionally important and economically valuable group, but are threatened by land-use conversion and intensification. Such pressures are not expected to affect all species identically; rather, they are likely to be mediated by the species' ecological traits.Understanding which types of species are most vulnerable under which land uses is an important step towards effective conservation planning.We collated occurrence and abundance data for 257 bee species at 1584 European sites from surveys reported in 30 published papers (70 056 records) and combined them with species-level ecological trait data. We used mixed-effects models to assess the importance of land use (land-use class, agricultural use-intensity and a remotely-sensed measure of vegetation), traits and trait × land-use interactions, in explaining species occurrence and abundance.Species' sensitivity to land use was most strongly influenced by flight season duration and foraging range, but also by niche breadth, reproductive strategy and phenology, with effects that differed among cropland, pastoral and urban habitats. Synthesis and applications. Rather than targeting particular species or settings, conservation actions may be more effective if focused on mitigating situations where species' traits strongly and negatively interact with land-use pressures. We find evidence that low-intensity agriculture can maintain relatively diverse bee communities; in more intensive settings, added floral resources may be beneficial, but will require careful placement with respect to foraging ranges of smaller bee species. Protection of semi-natural habitats is essential, however; in particular, conversion to urban environments could have severe effects on bee diversity and pollination services. Our results highlight the importance of exploring how ecological traits mediate species responses to human impacts, but further research is needed to enhance the predictive ability of such analyses.

Project description:Eusocial corbiculate bees, including bumble bees and honey bees, maintain a socially transmitted core gut microbiome that contributes to digestion and pathogen defense. In contrast, solitary bees, which have fewer opportunities for direct interhost transmission, typically have less consistent microbiomes dominated by bacteria associated with pollen and food reserves. Carpenter bees (genus Xylocopa) are long-lived bees that are not eusocial but that often live in shared nesting sites. We characterized gut microbiomes for Xylocopa micans, X. mexicanorum, X. tabaniformis parkinsoniae, and X. virginica and for five solitary bee species from other genera (Andrena, Habropoda, Megachile, and Svastra), sampled in the same localities in central Texas. Unexpectedly, all four Xylocopa species had microbiomes dominated by bacterial lineages previously known only from social bees or other insect groups. Microbiomes were similar across three Xylocopa species and included lineages in the families Bifidobacteriaceae, Orbaceae, Lactobacillaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, and Enterobacteriaceae. In contrast, X. virginica had a distinct microbiome dominated by the genus Bombilactobacillus, a group abundant in guts of eusocial bees. Phylogenetic analyses support a past transfer of bacterial lineages into Xylocopa from bumble bees or honey bees. Gut microbiome compositions of Xylocopa species were distinct from those of other co-occurring solitary bees that had variable gut microbiomes dominated by bacteria from environmental sources. IMPORTANCE Gut microbiomes from social bees, such as honey bees and bumble bees, are conserved and consist of host-restricted bacteria that are transmitted among sterile female workers within a colony and that are important to the health of these key insect pollinators. In contrast, solitary bee species typically have more erratic, environmentally acquired microbiomes. Carpenter bees (genus Xylocopa) can be solitary as they lack a worker caste, and each female can excavate nests and raise offspring alone, although females are often social share nests at least in some species. This study showed that the gut microbiomes of four Xylocopa species have distinctive and consistent compositions and are dominated by bacterial lineages previously known from honey bees and bumble bees. Thus, eusociality is not required for bees to maintain a specialized, host-restricted gut microbiome. These findings suggest that gut bacteria are transmitted at shared nesting sites and that they play a role in host ecology.

Dataset Information

Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes.

Publications

Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes.

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