Drifting behaviour and colony health in social bees

蜜蜂是野生和农业植物的重要传粉者。温带地区最重要的传粉者是蜜蜂(意大利蜜蜂)，在热带地区，无刺蜜蜂或Meliponini。人们在蜂巢中饲养蜜蜂，以便于养蜂和授粉。对于亚马逊地区的传统社区来说，饲养巴西本土的无刺蜜蜂具有重要的经济和文化意义，因为蜜蜂提供食物、收入和医药产品。蜜蜂面临着一系列人为压力，包括杀虫剂、气候变化、新出现的病原体和栖息地破坏。从长期来看，这些应激源之间的相互作用可能导致蜜蜂群体的高年死亡率，并可能增加传粉者群体的风险，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“漂移”，这意味着蜜蜂不是偶然进入了错误的蜂巢，就是为了窃取食物来源。漂移与人为应激源和疾病之间的相互作用仍然知之甚少。这个博士生的目的是研究漂流行为、群体营养状态、接触瘟疫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线上的无刺蜜蜂和英国的蜜蜂来做到这一点。讨论了四个具体目标：1)了解漂流行为与疾病之间的联系；2)了解漂流行为与农药之间的联系；3)了解漂流行为与蜂群的营养和觅食条件之间的联系；4)了解蜂群的空间排列与漂流行为之间的联系。后者将与模拟建模相结合，以评估蜂群的空间安排如何减少漂移和疾病传播。该项目将使应聘者学习到一种令人兴奋的方法组合，并与非营利组织Meli和当地社区合作，在巴西和英国工作

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