U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ORD/CEMM/EPD, Athens, GA 30605, USA.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ORD/CCTE/GLTED, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Dec 1;954:176329. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176329. Epub 2024 Sep 19.
Pollinators provide ecological services essential to maintaining our food supply and propagating natural habitats. Populations are in decline due to environmental stressors including pesticides, pathogens, and habitat loss. To better understand the impacts of pesticide exposures on colony health, a field survey in Ohio, USA was conducted to monitor the potential contamination of honey bee colonies by pesticides. Apiaries (n = 10) were situated across an agricultural gradient and samples were collected over a 4-week period encompassing corn planting. Dead bees from entrance traps (DBT), pollen, and in-hive (IH) matrices including bee bread, honey, larvae, and nurse bees were analyzed for a whole suite of pesticides. Out of 210 pesticides targeted, 68 residues were quantified across 306 samples. Neonicotinoids, miticides, and fungicides were the dominant pesticide classes identified throughout all the matrix types. Neonicotinoids were detected at higher concentrations and at higher frequencies compared to fungicides, specifically in field pollen samples. DBT also contained high concentrations of these two contaminant classes, although detection frequencies for neonicotinoids were typically lower. Overall, herbicides and non‑neonicotinoid insecticides were found with low frequency and at low concentrations. For most pesticide classes, trends for the mean concentrations were DBT > IH nurse bees > field pollen > IH larvae > IH honey. Pesticides were detected in 100 % of samples with concentrations ranging from 0.01 ppb (diphenylamine) to 2790 ppb (clothianidin). All samples were contaminated with at least two pesticide residues, while 19 samples presented over ten detects and maximum detections of 20 in DBT. Pesticide residues were positively correlated with agricultural gradients across sites and sampling periods. These findings reveal that foraging leads to the exposure of the entire colony to a wide range of pesticides. Moreover, residues determined in DBT serve as an effective proxy for monitoring hive matrices with significantly less disturbance to active hives.
传粉媒介为维持我们的食物供应和繁衍自然栖息地提供了必不可少的生态服务。由于环境压力，包括杀虫剂、病原体和栖息地丧失，传粉媒介的数量正在减少。为了更好地了解农药暴露对蜂群健康的影响，在美国俄亥俄州进行了一项实地调查，以监测蜜蜂种群可能受到农药的污染。养蜂场（n=10）分布在农业梯度上，在涵盖玉米种植的 4 周内采集样本。从入口陷阱（DBT）、花粉和蜂巢内（IH）基质（包括蜂粮、蜂蜜、幼虫和保育蜂）中采集死蜂样本，分析了一整套农药。在所针对的 210 种农药中，在 306 个样本中定量了 68 种残留。在所有基质类型中，新烟碱类、杀螨剂和杀菌剂是鉴定出的主要农药类别。与杀菌剂相比，新烟碱类在所有基质类型中的浓度和频率都更高，特别是在田间花粉样本中。入口陷阱中也含有这两类高浓度污染物，但新烟碱类的检出频率通常较低。总体而言，除草剂和非新烟碱类杀虫剂的检出频率较低，浓度也较低。对于大多数农药类别，平均浓度的趋势为 DBT>IH 保育蜂>田间花粉>IH 幼虫>IH 蜂蜜。所有样本都检测到了农药残留，浓度范围从 0.01ppb（二苯胺）到 2790ppb（噻虫嗪）。所有样本都至少被两种农药残留污染，而 19 个样本检测到 10 种以上残留，入口陷阱中最高检测到 20 种。农药残留与各站点和采样期间的农业梯度呈正相关。这些发现表明，觅食使整个蜂群接触到广泛的农药。此外，入口陷阱中的残留可作为监测蜂巢基质的有效替代方法，对活跃蜂群的干扰显著减少。
