pan-european assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of stressors on the health of bees
A new PoshBee paper describes the development process, rationale, and lessons learned from a wide transdisciplinary investigation into farmland pollinators, conducted within the project’s framework. Distribution of apple and oilseed rape locations that formed the PoshBee site network, with eight sites of each crop in each of the eight participating countries. Note clustering of crops in some of the countries, and proximity of German apple sites to Swiss field sites....
A recently-published PoshBee study assessed the impact of crop exposure and agricultural intensification on the phenotypic variation of bees. Understanding how such environmental stressors impact phenotypic variations is especially relevant in light of the current rapid global change. Insect wings represent an accurate means to assess phenotypic variation because they are flat, two-dimensional and present many homologous landmarks. Furthermore, several studies show that stressful conditions,...
PoshBee is happy to present its latest social media campaign sharing PoshBee’s training videos. These videos transform PoshBee’s work from words to action in order to demonstrate project research in practice, improve bee health capacity and facilitate knowledge transfer. Discover all twelve PoshBee training videos by searching for the hashtag "PoshBeeVideos" on Twitter. PoshBee training videos poster Watch PoshBee’s training
Declines in insect pollinators’ abundance and diversity are evidenced globally and should be addressed not only due to ethical reasons, but also because there are clear benefits from maintaining and enhancing pollinator diversity. For example, although managed bees generally play the major role in the pollination of commercial crops, wild pollinators also provide important crop pollination services. It is hence crucial to inspire the development of management and policy guidelines for the...
On 28 July 2022, PoshBee published one of its key exploitable results to the Horizon Results Platform. Its publication supports the project’s goal to turn scientific research into innovations that can address our societal, economic and environmental challenges. Horizon Results Platform The Horizon Results Platform (HRP), whose motto is "Making results matter", is the place where you can discover the abundance of EU-funded research results and you can get in contact...
On 18 July, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) launched a public consultation on their Revised guidance on the risk assessment of plant protection products on bees (Apis mellifera, Bombus spp. and solitary bees). This consultation comes as a response to a request from the European Commission for the Authority to review its guidance document from 2013 by considering the new scientific knowledge that has emerged. Thus, EFSA launched a public consultation in order to safeguard all...
In January 2022, the PoshBee project committed to providing stakeholder summaries for all high-impact original research and meta analyses. Seven months later, the project has already published 13 such summaries, 11 of which are available in languages other than English (French, Italian, German, etc.). Find out more about PoshBee’s stakeholder summaries below. Pollen nutrition fosters honeybee tolerance to pesticides (in English and French) PoshBee’s first summary answers...
On 22 June 2022, the EU Commission adopted groundbreaking proposals dedicated to protecting and restoring nature. In the context of continuous biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, the EC concluded that more decisive action is needed to achieve the EU climate and biodiversity objectives for 2030 and for 2050. Proposal for Nature Restoration Law For years, the EU has been working towards protecting and restoring nature on many fronts with strategies such as the European Green...
Bees are a highly diverse group of pollinating insects with many species, exhibiting differences in traits such as body size, social behaviour, foraging strategies or floral choices. And while it is well-known bee species vary in such traits, there is still little information on how they vary in their nutritional requirements. Bumblebee on a flower. To address this knowledge gap, PoshBee researchers from UMONS, INRAE & CREA, developed original laboratory experiments,...
PoshBee’s Technical Innovations page has new additions aiming to guide beekeepers and environmental managers in their everyday practice. In order to facilitate semi-field and field experiments on honey bees, PoshBee partners Matthew J. Allan and Robin R. Dean proposed a novel integrated system of research equipment for field studies on honey bees in which each item is designed and built in a coordinated fashion to improve speed, ease, reliability, and accuracy. PoshBee study...
Following the restrictions in the use of neonicotinoid insecticides, there has been a global increase in the application of the sulfoximine-based insecticide sulfoxaflor as a potential replacement. Sulfoxaflor is classified as posing high risks to bees when applied during flowering, but the potential negative effects of pre-flowering sulfoxaflor applications on solitary bees under realistic conditions remain unknown. Pesticide use on crops. In order to obtain a better...
On 20 May 2022, the EUobserver published an opinion piece on what still needs to be done to save the EU's bees. The opinion highlighted that one-third of the everyday foods we eat is pollinated by bees and other insects, which are increasingly under threat. And since a high proportion of the threatened bee species are native to Europe or the EU27, Europe has a particular duty to protect them. What Europe still needs to do to save its bees? In this context, the European...
PoshBee does its best to support sustainable beekeeping and pollination across Europe. However, stopping pollinator decline is a complex objective which requires action on many fronts, including providing updated information on pollinator’s health, monitoring and identifying species in danger, creating national strategies to support the bee sector locally, etc. Luckily, the PoshBee project is far from being the only one supporting pollinator health. Across Europe, there are many...
Despite potential interactions between stressors, such as pesticides and lack of flowering resources, the impacts of pesticides on bees are generally assumed to be consistent across bee-attractive crops, and pesticides regulatory risk assessments neglect interactions with flowering resources. In a new PoshBee research article, called Flowering resources modulate the sensitivity of bumblebees to a common fungicide, scientists set out to find if the type of flowering resource in fact...
Riddle me this: what is informative and well-prepared, whilst being relaxed and friendly? Apparently, PoshBee workshops are – or at least that’s what the participants in PoshBee’s European Bee Course think. Opening presentation by Prof. Denis Michez. This two-day dedicated training school, organised by UMONS, was held in Mons, Belgium on the 12th and 13th of April 2022. The workshop was open to all and its goal was to build better bee healthy capacity among early...
A lot has happened in the past year. Thankfully, our annual PoshBee Buzz newsletter is here to summarise it all for you. From meetings and podcasts to workshops and scientific publications, you have it all in our latest PoshBee Buzz newsletter. The PoshBee Buzz, volume 4. Download the newsletter here and don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE in order to receive our next issue directly in your
Honey bees collect nectar and pollen to fulfil their nutritional needs. However, pollen can also be beneficial for the mitigation of the harmful effects of the parasitic mite Varroa destructor. Varroa infestations at the pupal stage influence the nutritional status of honey bees, compromising their natural physiological and behavioural maturation. This leads to an accelerated transition to foraging and consequently a shorter overall lifespan for the bee. Fortunately, access to pollen...
At PoshBee, we know that many hands make light work - our project is composed of 43 partner organisations from 14 countries. This diversity contributes to a particular research environment, where each member adds value to the project with their own specific and unique background, capacity and knowledge. In order to highlight the invaluable work done by the different organisations and researchers in PoshBee, we launched a new webpage on our website dedicated specifically to our...
PoshBee wishes you a happy and memorable Easter!
To further support sustainable beekeeping practices, PoshBee has published four new practice abstracts on the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI) platform. These brief and direct pieces of research information aim to make project results more available to practitioners in order to foster sustainable farming. Beekeeper taking care of his hives. The four new abstracts discuss: beekeepers willingness to take up new...