Optimising Nature's pharmacies: plant chemicals and pollinator health at the landscape scale

大黄蜂不仅是夏季草地上令人喜爱的嗡嗡声，它们对野花的受精也是必不可少的，没有它们和其他访花昆虫，我们的许多开花植物物种将会消失。大黄蜂是最重要的野花授粉群体之一，但世界上许多大黄蜂物种正在减少。它们数量减少的一个原因是寄生虫对它们健康的影响。我们最近的工作表明，花不仅为来访的大黄蜂提供花蜜，提供糖和花粉，提供蛋白质，而且还提供有助于抵抗寄生虫感染的物质，从而改善大黄蜂的健康。如果我们能够了解这些物质是在何时何地产生的，以及在什么情况下它们可以改善大黄蜂的健康，我们将能够管理景观，使它们的利益最大化。从本质上讲，我们可以把自然景观变成蜜蜂的药房。最近，我们发现，在英国的石楠荒原和沼地占主导地位的石楠花是蜜蜂花蜜的四大生产商之一，它在花蜜中产生一种叫做callunene的天然物质，它可以防止单个大黄蜂感染肠道寄生虫，这种寄生虫会对蜜蜂的健康产生巨大影响。然而，低地石楠荒原是一个受到高度威胁的栖息地，在过去的200年里，超过80%的石楠荒原消失了，而英国拥有全球20%的石楠荒原。在这项研究中，我们将测试callenene对个体大黄蜂的积极影响是否扩大到对大黄蜂群体健康的类似影响。我们将在受控的实验室实验下进行这项研究，通过在野外的受控暴露，然后在实际的低地健康环境中，来揭示积极影响是如何产生的。我们还将量化低地荒原的callen烯产量，以了解驱动其生产的因素。这将使我们能够计算低地荒地对大黄蜂的额外健康价值，并了解我们如何管理荒地，以最大限度地提高它们对蜜蜂健康的价值。总的来说，我们将评估大自然的药剂对蜜蜂健康的价值，并为低地健康的管理者提供信息和指导，以帮助他们最大限度地提高石南花赖以生存的蜜蜂的健康。

Bumble bees are not just the beloved buzz of summer meadows, they are essential to the fertilisation of wild flowers, and without them and other flower-visiting insects many of our flowering plant species would disappear. Bumble bees are one of the most important pollinating groups for wild flowers but many bumble bee species are in decline around the world. One reason for their decline is the impact of parasites on their health. Our recent work has shown that flowers not only supply visiting bumble bees with nectar for sugar and pollen for protein, but that they also provide substances that can help to combat parasite infections, and thus improve bumble bee health. If we can understand where and when these substances are produced and under what circumstances they can improve bumble bee health, we will be able to manage the landscape to maximise their benefit. In essence, we can turn natural landscapes into pharmacies for bees.Recently, we found that ling heather, which dominates heathland and moorland in the UK, and is one of the top 4 producers of nectar for bees, produces a natural substance called callunene in the nectar, which prevents the infection of individual bumble bees with a gut parasite that can have dramatic impacts on bee health. However, lowland heathland is a highly threatened habitat, with more than 80% lost over the last 200 years, and the UK holding 20% of the global remains. In this study we will test whether the positive impact of callunene on individual bumble bees scales up to similar impacts on the health of bumble bee colonies. We will do this under controlled laboratory experiments, through controlled exposure in the field, and then in actual lowland heath, to unravel how positive impacts emerge. We will also quantify callunene production across lowland heaths to understand what factors drive its production. This will allow us to calculate the additional health value of lowland heaths to bumble bees, and understand how we can manage heaths to maximise their value to bee health.Overall, we will assess the value of Nature's pharmacy to bee health, and provide information and guidance to managers of lowland heath to aid them in maximising the health of the bees on which heather relies.