Drifting behaviour and colony health in social bees

群居蜜蜂的漂流行为和群体健康

• 批准号: 2886305
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2886305
• 关键词: Drifting; behaviour; colony; health; social

Bees are important pollinators of wild and agricultural plants. Among the most important pollinators in temperateregions are honeybees (Apis mellifera) and, in the tropics, the stingless bees or Meliponini. People keep bees inapiaries to facilitate beekeeping and pollination. For traditional communities in the Amazon, beekeeping of nativeBrazilian stingless bees is of both economic and cultural importance as bees provide food, income and medicinalproducts. Bees face a cocktail of anthropogenic stressors, including pesticides, climate change, emerging pathogens andhabitat destruction. In the long term, the interactions among these stressors can lead to high annual mortality ratesof bee colonies and, potentially, elevated risks to pollinator communities due to a spill-over of diseases from infectedhives to other hives and wild pollinators. One behaviour that is of particular interest for colony health and diseasetransmission is worker "drifting", which means that bees enter the wrong hive, either by accident or to steal food sources.The interactions between drifting and anthropogenic stressors and diseases are still poorly understood. The aim of this PhD studentship is to study the links between drifting behaviour, the nutritional state of colonies, pesticideexposure and pathogen infection. It will do so by studying stingless bees in the deforestation arc in the Brazilian Maranhãoregion and honeybees in the UK. Four specific aims are addressed: 1) Understand the links between drifting behaviour anddiseases, 2) understand the links between drifting behaviour and pesticides, 3) understand the links between driftingbehaviour and the nutritional and foraging condition of colonies and, 4) understand the links between the spatialarrangement of apiaries and drifting behaviour. The latter will be combined with simulation modelling to assess how thespatial arrangement of colonies can reduce drifting and disease spread. This project will allow the candidate to learn an exciting mix of methodological approaches and work in both Brazil, incollaboration with the not-for-profit organisation Meli and local communities, and in the UK

蜜蜂是野生植物和农业植物的重要传粉者。在温带地区，最重要的传粉者是蜜蜂（Apis mellifera），而在热带地区，则是无刺蜂（Meliponini）。人们把蜜蜂养在养蜂场里以方便养蜂和授粉。对于亚马逊地区的传统社区来说，巴西本土无刺蜂的养蜂具有经济和文化重要性，因为蜜蜂提供食物、收入和药品。蜜蜂面临着一系列人为的压力，包括杀虫剂、气候变化、新出现的病原体和栖息地的破坏。从长远来看，这些压力因素之间的相互作用可能导致蜂群的高年死亡率，并可能增加传粉者社区的风险，因为疾病从受感染的蜂箱溢出到其他蜂箱和野生传粉者。对蜂群健康和疾病传播特别感兴趣的一种行为是工蜂“漂流”，这意味着蜜蜂进入错误的蜂巢，无论是意外还是为了窃取食物来源。漂流与人为压力源和疾病之间的相互作用仍然知之甚少。这个博士研究生项目的目的是研究漂流行为，殖民地的营养状态，杀虫剂暴露和病原体感染之间的联系。它将通过研究巴西马拉尼昂地区森林砍伐弧中的无刺蜂和英国的蜜蜂来实现这一目标。本文提出了四个具体目标：1）理解漂流行为与疾病之间的联系，2）理解漂流行为与杀虫剂之间的联系，3）理解漂流行为与蜂群的营养和觅食条件之间的联系，4）理解养蜂场的空间布局与漂流行为之间的联系。后者将与模拟模型相结合，以评估殖民地的空间安排如何减少漂移和疾病传播。该项目将允许候选人学习方法论方法的令人兴奋的组合，并在巴西与非营利组织Meli和当地社区以及英国合作