pan-european assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of stressors on the health of bees

In PoshBee, we believe in making research information FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable). This is why we strive to make our publications easily understandable and available to all our stakeholders, from researchers to beekeepers. In order to achieve that, PoshBee will develop a so-called Stakeholder summary for each primary research paper produced in the framework of the project. These are either short text-based or graphical summaries, describing the question...

A recent article developed in the framework of PoshBee and published in the Ecology and Evolution open access journal presents a novel automated approach for the assessment of nesting and foraging performance of cavity-nesting solitary bees. Such assessment is essential because it provides valuable information on bee health and is thus relevant for the impact evaluation of environmental stressors. Nevertheless, the effect of different stressors varies between species and depends on traits...

A new research article published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal calls for more research attention to the effects of ‘inert’ ingredients on bees.  Man using pesticides. One of the factors contributing to bee decline is the widespread use of pesticides in complex formulations, which include an active ingredient and co-formulants facilitating its action. When applied to crops, these formulations are then further accompanied by separate products called...

On the 12th and 13th of April, 2022, the University of Mons is organising a free 2-day workshop at Mons, Belgium. The workshop will focus on bumble bees and solitary bees and it will present the new techniques of analysis developed by PoshBee’s researchers. Program  Day 1 (12/04/2022) – Bumble bees:  Introduction to ecology and diversity of bumblebees; Status and trends of bumblebees; Experiments developed in PoshBee....

PoshBee just published a new video on YouTube! In the training video "PoshBee Research: Pesticide risk assessment experiments on wild bee species", Alexandre Barraud, a PhD student from the University of Mons, will not talk about domesticated bee species, but rather about wild bee species. Which, even if you may not always see them, represent over 20 000 species in Europe. These species can be very different in terms of size or colours. They can be solitary or social, they can...

PoshBee just published a new video on YouTube! In the training video "PoshBee Research: Effects of agrochemical-nutrition interactions on bee health in the laboratory", Alexandre Barraud, a PhD student from the University of Mons, gives more insight into bee decline in Europe. It is a fact that several bee species, including crop pollinating species, are currently in decline. Bumblebees, for example, are an important pollinator group, but about one-third of the species is in...

Consortium members, practitioners and other stakeholders of the PoshBee project met up between 11 and 13 January 2022 for the project’s fourth annual general meeting. The three-day-long event hosted by the coordinating institution Royal Holloway, University of London was marked by insightful presentations, vivid discussions and an overview of the project’s developments and future initiatives. The initial format in mind of the meeting was a hybrid conference environment, with five...

MALDI IMS (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry) is a powerful technology used to investigate the spatio-temporal distribution of a huge number of molecules throughout a body/tissue section. Like in other animal models, imaging approaches such as this one could be used to assess the impact of health stressors on honeybees. In order to better understand the perspectives of such approaches, a recent PoshBee research paper reported on how MALDI IMS can be employed...

In order to facilitate semi-field and field experiments on honey bees, PoshBee partners proposed a novel integrated system of research equipment.  Study Frame. The system’s main component is the Study Frame (Figure 1). It is constructed so that one or both sides can be fitted with a queen excluder cover held in place with clips. Each side of the top bar is laser-engraved with a unique identifier. Converter Hive. The second important item is the Converter Hive...

PoshBee wishes you a very happy holiday season and a joyful and prosperous New Year!

Beebread is an essential food source for honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees, which store pollen in their nests. However, this pollen can often be contaminated by pesticides, which also affects the beebread. As a result, contaminated beebread is amongst the main sources of dietary exposure to pesticides across all bee species. Nevertheless, it is still insufficiently analysed despite its ability to store pesticides for long periods of time. Flying bees. In this context, a recent...

A new research article published in the open-access online journal Nature Ecology & Evolution presents insightful ways to improve the pesticide-use data for the European Union. Photo courtesy: @franki/unsplash.com Access to pesticide-use data is important to properly assess the harmful effects of pesticides on human and ecosystem health. That is why the European Commission has proposed to reform the EU legal framework of statistics on agricultural input and output in February...

No evidence that Glyphosate alone, or in combination with a common parasite, has negative lethal or sublethal effects on bumble bees Glyphosate is the most commonly used pesticide in the world, and is widely used in agriculture. While glyphosate has been deemed ‘bee-safe’ by regulators, some emerging evidence studies suggest that it has negative effects on bees. For that reason, discovering whether glyphosate alone, or in combination with other stressors, is detrimental to bee...

In this PoshBee video project partners from BioPark Archamps and CNRS demonstrate the analysis of bee haemolymph samples with MALDI BeeTyping®. They perform spectral analysis, with the conclusions reached through this method being of significant importance for gaining in-epth knowledge about beehealth.

This PoshBee training video titled "PoshBee research: Nectar extraction from bees" was created by PoshBee researchers from ANSES. The video demonstrates the PoshBee methods for nectar extraction from bee stomachs performed by the PoshBee researchers at the ANSES Sophia Antipolis laboratory.

A research article recently published in the Environmental International journal provides insight into the effects that the exposure to the product Closer containing the insecticide sulfoxaflor and the product Amistar containing the fungicide azoxystrobin has on bumble bees. The article called "Fungicide and insecticide exposure adversely impacts bumble bees and pollination services under semi-field conditions" shows that Closer (sulfoxaflor insecticide) led to reduced colony...

Pollinators are suffering declines worldwide, and pesticides are thought to be the main driver of their decline. In this context, a lot of research effort has been put into understanding and regulating the active ingredients in pesticides. Nevertheless, the additional components in pesticide formulations are often overlooked and understudied. Bumblebee on a flower. To make up for this oversight, a new PoshBee research article, called Co‐formulant in a commercial fungicide...

In this video, Agroscope researchers conduct a semi-field experiment to investigate the effects of a pesticide on a cavity nesting solitary bee species - Osmia Bicornis.

In this video, PoshBee researchers from the Anses Sophia Antipolis laboratory show the procedure for pesticide residue analysis in nectar regurgitated by honey bees and bumble bees.

A new PoshBee video titled "PoshBee research: The PoshBee database" demonstrates the digital data storage platform Poshbase, which serves for gathering and exchange of data between researchers. The video is part of a new PoshBee video series which displays various research techniques and methods used by project researchers, including measuring chemical exposure, pathogens and nutrition in honey bees, bumblebees, and solitary bees. The researchers from the Anses Sophia-Antipolis...