Bumblebees are resilient to neonicotinoid-fungicide combinations
Bumblebees are among the most important wild bees for pollination of crops and securing wildflower diversity. However, their abundance and diversity have been on a steady decrease in the last decades. One of the most important factors leading to their decline is the frequent use of plant protection...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Environment International |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412024001946 |
| _version_ | 1797234152581365760 |
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| author | Antonia Schuhmann Janna Schulte Heike Feldhaar Ricarda Scheiner |
| author_facet | Antonia Schuhmann Janna Schulte Heike Feldhaar Ricarda Scheiner |
| author_sort | Antonia Schuhmann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Bumblebees are among the most important wild bees for pollination of crops and securing wildflower diversity. However, their abundance and diversity have been on a steady decrease in the last decades. One of the most important factors leading to their decline is the frequent use of plant protection products (PPPs) in agriculture, which spread into forests and natural reserves. Mixtures of different PPPs pose a particular threat because of possible synergistic effects. While there is a comparatively large body of studies on the effects of PPPs on honeybees, we still lack data on wild bees. We here investigated the influence of the frequent fungicide Cantus® Gold (boscalid/dimoxystrobin), the neonicotinoid insecticide Mospilan® (acetamiprid) and their combination on bumblebees. Cognitive performance and foraging flights of bumblebees were studied. They are essential for the provisioning and survival of the colony. We introduce a novel method for testing four treatments simultaneously on the same colony, minimizing inter-colony differences. For this, we successfully quartered the colony and moved the queen daily between compartments. Bumblebees appeared astonishingly resilient to the PPPs tested or they have developed mechanisms for detoxification. Neither learning capacity nor flight activity were inhibited by treatment with the single PPPs or their combination. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T16:27:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ee5e04741c9d494db9de3efec137b797 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0160-4120 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T16:27:31Z |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environment International |
| spelling | doaj.art-ee5e04741c9d494db9de3efec137b7972024-03-31T04:36:42ZengElsevierEnvironment International0160-41202024-04-01186108608Bumblebees are resilient to neonicotinoid-fungicide combinationsAntonia Schuhmann0Janna Schulte1Heike Feldhaar2Ricarda Scheiner3Biocenter, Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, University of Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany; Corresponding author.Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, GermanyDepartment of Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, 95447 Bayreuth, GermanyBiocenter, Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, University of Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, GermanyBumblebees are among the most important wild bees for pollination of crops and securing wildflower diversity. However, their abundance and diversity have been on a steady decrease in the last decades. One of the most important factors leading to their decline is the frequent use of plant protection products (PPPs) in agriculture, which spread into forests and natural reserves. Mixtures of different PPPs pose a particular threat because of possible synergistic effects. While there is a comparatively large body of studies on the effects of PPPs on honeybees, we still lack data on wild bees. We here investigated the influence of the frequent fungicide Cantus® Gold (boscalid/dimoxystrobin), the neonicotinoid insecticide Mospilan® (acetamiprid) and their combination on bumblebees. Cognitive performance and foraging flights of bumblebees were studied. They are essential for the provisioning and survival of the colony. We introduce a novel method for testing four treatments simultaneously on the same colony, minimizing inter-colony differences. For this, we successfully quartered the colony and moved the queen daily between compartments. Bumblebees appeared astonishingly resilient to the PPPs tested or they have developed mechanisms for detoxification. Neither learning capacity nor flight activity were inhibited by treatment with the single PPPs or their combination.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412024001946Wild beesPlant protection productsPesticide mixturesSynergistic effectsInsecticideFungicide |
| spellingShingle | Antonia Schuhmann Janna Schulte Heike Feldhaar Ricarda Scheiner Bumblebees are resilient to neonicotinoid-fungicide combinations Environment International Wild bees Plant protection products Pesticide mixtures Synergistic effects Insecticide Fungicide |
| title | Bumblebees are resilient to neonicotinoid-fungicide combinations |
| title_full | Bumblebees are resilient to neonicotinoid-fungicide combinations |
| title_fullStr | Bumblebees are resilient to neonicotinoid-fungicide combinations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bumblebees are resilient to neonicotinoid-fungicide combinations |
| title_short | Bumblebees are resilient to neonicotinoid-fungicide combinations |
| title_sort | bumblebees are resilient to neonicotinoid fungicide combinations |
| topic | Wild bees Plant protection products Pesticide mixtures Synergistic effects Insecticide Fungicide |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412024001946 |
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