Graduate Group in Ecology and Department of Entomology & Nematology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2020 Sep 30;287(1935):20201390. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1390.
Bees and other beneficial insects experience multiple stressors within agricultural landscapes that act together to impact their health and diminish their ability to deliver the ecosystem services on which human food supplies depend. Disentangling the effects of coupled stressors is a primary challenge for understanding how to promote their populations and ensure robust pollination and other ecosystem services. We used a crossed design to quantify the individual and combined effects of food resource limitation and pesticide exposure on the survival, nesting, and reproduction of the blue orchard bee . Nesting females in large flight cages accessed wildflowers at high or low densities, treated with or without the common insecticide, imidacloprid. Pesticides and resource limitation acted additively to dramatically reduce reproduction in free-flying bees. Our results emphasize the importance of considering multiple drivers to inform population persistence, management, and risk assessment for the long-term sustainability of food production and natural ecosystems.
在农业景观中，蜜蜂和其他有益昆虫会经历多种压力源，这些压力源共同作用会影响它们的健康，并降低它们提供人类食物供应所依赖的生态系统服务的能力。厘清耦合压力源的影响是理解如何促进其种群数量增长以及确保稳健授粉和其他生态系统服务的主要挑战。我们使用交叉设计来量化食物资源限制和农药暴露对蓝果园蜜蜂生存、筑巢和繁殖的单独和综合影响。在大型飞行笼中，筑巢的雌性蜜蜂可以选择以高或低密度接触野生花卉，并接受或不接受常用杀虫剂吡虫啉处理。杀虫剂和资源限制会产生累加效应，显著降低自由飞行蜜蜂的繁殖能力。我们的研究结果强调了考虑多种驱动因素的重要性，以告知种群的持续存在、管理和风险评估，从而实现食物生产和自然生态系统的长期可持续性。
