pan-european assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of stressors on the health of bees
On 22 and 23 March 2023, five years after PoshBee’s kick-off meeting in Paris, project partners and stakeholder advisory committee members gathered for a bitter-sweet final meeting in Rome. It is fair to say that after two online annual meetings, partners were more than happy to gather in person and create that PoshBee buzz in the room one final time. PoshBee partners at the final meeting in Rome, Italy. Hosted by project partner Coldiretti, the meeting was officially opened by...
A recent study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences has developed molecular signatures reflecting the health status of the buff-tailed bumblebee – Bombus terrestris. The study aimed to better understand the impact of environmental stressors on the health of pollinators, so crucial for maintaining biodiversity in ecosystems and agriculture. Omics workflow (seven steps from experimental infection to data processing) applied to Bombus terrestris. The...
The connection between diet and pesticide resistance in bees have recently received attention, both in PoshBee and outside. When experimentally testing pesticide risk to bees, only pollen generalists are used. What about pollen specialist (oligolectic) species? A new PoshBee paper introduces the wallflower mason bee (Osmia brevicornis) as a potential model species to study the effects of pesticides on a bee specialised on the cabbage family, including the common European field crop oilseed...
Weather conditions are an important driver of pollinator activity and with global climate continuing to change, researchers ponder the question of how the changing weather patterns affect the relative contributions and importance of different pollinator groups. To understand what might happen in the future, it is important to first understand how bees respond to current weather conditions. To find out more about this question, a recent study co-funded by PoshBee conducted in Ireland observed...
In the spirit of delivering practice-relevant research outputs, PoshBee issues a stakeholder summary for each published research paper, focusing on the publications’ main outcomes with practical value. To provide stakeholders with a comprehensive overview of the project’s summaries, PoshBee prepared a new "Stakeholder summaries booklet". The booklet contains PoshBee’s 19 stakeholder summaries produced thus far, 15 of which are available in languages...
In October 2022, Eleanor Attridge (PoshBee partner from the Federation of Beekeepers of Ireland Associations [FIBKA]) won the annual UK National Honey Show essay competition on the topic of "Lifecycle of the Varroa Mite". Essay by Eleanor Attridge, published in BBKA News. The Varroa mite is the most significant threat to honey bees’ survival, weakening their immune system, which can lead to very high winter losses. Eleanor’s essay discusses its life...
PoshBee’s open access collection in the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal continues to grow, with its latest publication being the project’s Milestone 15 Protocols for semi-field and field experiments. PoshBee study frame. In contrast to the conventional study design where bees are exposed to one stressor or product alone to assess its effects, PoshBee carried out several semi-field and field studies exposing bees to more than one stressor, for example, a fungicide...
On 24 January 2023, the European Commission presented 'A New Deal for Pollinators' revising the 2018 EU Pollinators Initiative. This new deal comes in response to increasing calls to improve pollinator conservation and tackle the causes of their decline and its consequences on food security, human health, quality of life and ecosystems. The revised Pollinators Initiative sets objectives for 2030 and related actions under three priorities: I: Improving knowledge of pollinator...
2023 started with an action-packed January for PoshBee. On 11 and 12 January, with less than 6 months left in the project, partners met up in GatherTown to make sure there would be nothing but smooth sailing until the Final project meeting in March and ultimately, PoshBee’s end in May. The two-day workshops covered a wide area of topics, ranging from the coordination of upcoming publications and open access guidelines to ensuring overall project objectives are met through strategic...
Season's greetings!
In our new video, we take a look back to appreciate our 2022 highlights!
This press release was published by EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo. To make its scientific results more accessible, the Horizon 2020 research project PoshBee (GA No. 773921) issues a stakeholder summary for each published research output. PoshBee (Pan-european assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of stressors on the health of bees) aims to support healthy bee populations and sustainable beekeeping. In this context, successful cooperation between diverse stakeholder groups is...
The annual UK National Honey Show took place on 27–29 October 2022 in Surrey, England. It is the UK's premier honey show with international classes, lecture conventions and workshops. With its nearly two hundred and fifty competitive classes, the show attracts beekeepers from around the world eager to compete for the coveted trophies and prize cards. Among this year’s winners was a PoshBee partner from the Federation of Beekeepers of Ireland Associations (FIBKA)....
On 12 November 2022, London had its annual Lord Mayor's Show, which goes all the way back to the early 13th century. This event is an opportunity for a review of all the charities supported by the Lord Mayor and the livery companies in the city. One of the charities is Pollinating London Together – a panlivery initiative that is raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity and pollinators, and their substantial recent decline. The bee mansion built by Robin Dean....
The SFE2-GfÖ-EEF joint meeting took place in Metz, France, between 21-25 November 2022. Held under the slogan "Ecology and Evolution: New perspectives and societal challenges", the meeting hosted cutting-edge researchers, science policymakers, and leading academics from all over the map. Among them were PoshBee researchers who took the opportunity to present their latest results. Dimitry Wintermantel et al. 2022. Inconsistent negative impacts of azoxystrobin-based...
It has been over 4 years since the European Commission adopted the EU Pollinators Initiative – the first-ever initiative on wild pollinators. In it, the EU set out strategic objectives and specific actions that Member States have to take in order to address pollinator decline. To ensure the Initiative’s effectiveness, the European Commission is committed to thoroughly reviewing the progress in its implementation and where needed revising the action. As part of this...
Glyphosate is among the most used pesticides in the world and has been identified as one of the pesticides of greatest concern in terms of sublethal effects on bees (Tosi, Sfeir, Carnesecchi, VanEngelsdorp & Chauzat, 2022). In light of that, a new PoshBee study was specifically interested in advancing the assessment of beebread’s contamination with residues of glyphosate, since beebreads represent a possible source of long-term exposure of bees to glyphosate and only a few studies on...
Job opportunity in PoshBee: Pre- or postdoctoral researcher! The position is offered by the Chair of Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology, Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg. Research topic: Effects of pesticides and other stressors on beesConditions: TV-L 13 50-100%, 5 monthsStarting date: 1 January 2023 Requirements MSc in ecology, biology, environmental science, entomology or a related field Data analysis skills in...
Pathogens and parasites, and their associated diseases, are among the major stressors affecting bee health and consequently pollinator decline. The unicellular eukaryote Nosema microsporidia (Nosematidae) are among some of the widespread parasites of managed and wild bees. Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae have been described in honey bees and Nosema bombi in bumble bees. And although there are molecular methods which serve as a complement to microscopic diagnosis of nosemosis, to date, there...
The 9th European Congress of Apidology (EurBee 9) – convened under the motto "Save the bees for our future" – took place in Belgrade, Serbia, in September 2022. This international event was not only an opportunity for interesting scientific contributions and collaborative meetings, but also a chance for scientists and bee experts from around the world to meet in person. Among the oral and poster presentations delivered at EurBee 9, you could spot many familiar PoshBee...