Honeybees’ foraging choices for nectar and pollen revealed by DNA metabarcoding
Abstract Honeybees are the most widespread managed pollinators of our food crops, and a crucial part of their well-being is a suitable diet. Yet, we do not know how they choose flowers to collect nectar or pollen from. Here we studied forty-three honeybee colonies in six apiaries over a summer, iden...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42102-4 |
| _version_ | 1797576657015406592 |
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| author | Matti Leponiemi Dalial Freitak Miguel Moreno-Torres Eva-Maria Pferschy-Wenzig Antoine Becker-Scarpitta Mikko Tiusanen Eero J. Vesterinen Helena Wirta |
| author_facet | Matti Leponiemi Dalial Freitak Miguel Moreno-Torres Eva-Maria Pferschy-Wenzig Antoine Becker-Scarpitta Mikko Tiusanen Eero J. Vesterinen Helena Wirta |
| author_sort | Matti Leponiemi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Honeybees are the most widespread managed pollinators of our food crops, and a crucial part of their well-being is a suitable diet. Yet, we do not know how they choose flowers to collect nectar or pollen from. Here we studied forty-three honeybee colonies in six apiaries over a summer, identifying the floral origins of honey and hive-stored pollen samples by DNA-metabarcoding. We recorded the available flowering plants and analyzed the specialized metabolites in honey. Overall, we find that honeybees use mostly the same plants for both nectar and pollen, yet per colony less than half of the plant genera are used for both nectar and pollen at a time. Across samples, on average fewer plant genera were used for pollen, but the composition was more variable among samples, suggesting higher selectivity for pollen sources. Of the available flowering plants, honeybees used only a fraction for either nectar or pollen foraging. The time of summer guided the plant choices the most, and the location impacted both the plants selected and the specialized metabolite composition in honey. Thus, honeybees are selective for both nectar and pollen, implicating a need of a wide variety of floral resources to choose an optimal diet from. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:56:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e04dde91e0454f3f83ff81eb53c94696 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:56:00Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-e04dde91e0454f3f83ff81eb53c946962023-11-19T13:08:55ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-09-0113111510.1038/s41598-023-42102-4Honeybees’ foraging choices for nectar and pollen revealed by DNA metabarcodingMatti Leponiemi0Dalial Freitak1Miguel Moreno-Torres2Eva-Maria Pferschy-Wenzig3Antoine Becker-Scarpitta4Mikko Tiusanen5Eero J. Vesterinen6Helena Wirta7Institute of Biology, Karl-Franzen University of GrazInstitute of Biology, Karl-Franzen University of GrazInstitute of Environmental Systems Science, Karl-Franzens-Universität GrazInstitute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacognosy, University of GrazCIRAD, UMR PVBMTDepartment of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of ZurichDepartment of Biology, University of TurkuDepartment of Agricultural Sciences, University of HelsinkiAbstract Honeybees are the most widespread managed pollinators of our food crops, and a crucial part of their well-being is a suitable diet. Yet, we do not know how they choose flowers to collect nectar or pollen from. Here we studied forty-three honeybee colonies in six apiaries over a summer, identifying the floral origins of honey and hive-stored pollen samples by DNA-metabarcoding. We recorded the available flowering plants and analyzed the specialized metabolites in honey. Overall, we find that honeybees use mostly the same plants for both nectar and pollen, yet per colony less than half of the plant genera are used for both nectar and pollen at a time. Across samples, on average fewer plant genera were used for pollen, but the composition was more variable among samples, suggesting higher selectivity for pollen sources. Of the available flowering plants, honeybees used only a fraction for either nectar or pollen foraging. The time of summer guided the plant choices the most, and the location impacted both the plants selected and the specialized metabolite composition in honey. Thus, honeybees are selective for both nectar and pollen, implicating a need of a wide variety of floral resources to choose an optimal diet from.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42102-4 |
| spellingShingle | Matti Leponiemi Dalial Freitak Miguel Moreno-Torres Eva-Maria Pferschy-Wenzig Antoine Becker-Scarpitta Mikko Tiusanen Eero J. Vesterinen Helena Wirta Honeybees’ foraging choices for nectar and pollen revealed by DNA metabarcoding Scientific Reports |
| title | Honeybees’ foraging choices for nectar and pollen revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
| title_full | Honeybees’ foraging choices for nectar and pollen revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
| title_fullStr | Honeybees’ foraging choices for nectar and pollen revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
| title_full_unstemmed | Honeybees’ foraging choices for nectar and pollen revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
| title_short | Honeybees’ foraging choices for nectar and pollen revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
| title_sort | honeybees foraging choices for nectar and pollen revealed by dna metabarcoding |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42102-4 |
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