Source: OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
BENEFITS AND RISKS FOR BEES IN THE CORN-SOYBEAN AGROECOSYSTEM
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1018818
Grant No.
2019-67013-29297
Cumulative Award Amt.
$458,004.00
Proposal No.
2018-08615
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
May 1, 2019
Project End Date
Apr 30, 2022
Grant Year
2019
Program Code
[A1113]- Pollinator Health: Research and Application
Project Director
Johnson, R. M.
Recipient Organization
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
1680 MADISON AVENUE
WOOSTER,OH 44691
Performing Department
Entomology
Non Technical Summary
Areas growing corn and soybeans in the US are also home to one-third of the nation's managed honey bees and countless species of wild bees. However, bees in this agroecosystem are threatened by insecticide exposure, particularly insecticidal dusts produced during corn planting as neonicotinoid-laden seed treatments slough off in the planting process and resulting in bee kill reports from beekeepers. Preliminary research shows that corn planting activity is related to both contamination of pollen and an increase in honey bee deaths. Other bee species, including bumble bees and many solitary bees are also present in the corn-soybean agroecosystem and the effect of corn seed treatment insecticide exposure is unknown. Despite the risks, previous work has shown thatagriculturally intensive lands may be provide a substantial benefit for bees through abundantly availableof forage, including, possibly soybeans, which provides a "rescue effect" counteracting the harm caused byinsecticide exposure. This project will document exposure and effects of insecticides associated with corn planting and soybean bloom on honey bees, bumble bees, and stem-nesting solitary bees. It will also identify the plants utilized by the different bees in this environment throughDNA sequencingof bee-collected pollen and from honey harvested by beekeepers from around Ohio. This project will provide insight into ways in which insecticide management can reduce contamination of floral resources and the potential benefits of floral resources available in the corn-soybean agroecosystem.
Animal Health Component
60%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
60%
Developmental
20%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2161510115020%
2051820107020%
2113010107060%
Knowledge Area
211 - Insects, Mites, and Other Arthropods Affecting Plants; 205 - Plant Management Systems; 216 - Integrated Pest Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
1510 - Corn; 1820 - Soybean; 3010 - Honey bees;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology; 1150 - Toxicology;
Goals / Objectives
The corn-soybean agroecosystem dominates the landscape in much of the Midwest US. This area also supports one-third of US honey bee colonies, as well as a diversity of wild pollinators. But is the corn- and soybean-dominated landscape beneficial or detrimental to bee success? This project will identify the risks and benefits to bees associated with current management practices in this landscape with a long-term goal of improving management to best support the health and productivity of bees and other pollinators. This will be achieved: 1) through identification and promotion of plants, both on-field and off, that provide food for honey bees and wild bees; and 2) reducing the impact of insecticide use in corn and soybeans on bee reproduction and productivity. The following supporting objectives will examine risks and benefits along a gradient of agricultural intensity to provide information for use by farmers, beekeepers, agricultural suppliers and government agencies that can be used to maximize pollinator health and agricultural productivity:1. Measure honey bee (Apis mellifera) productivity, growth and insecticide exposure along a gradient of agricultural intensity in the corn-soybean agroecosystem2. Measure reproductive success of solitary stem-nesting bees Osmia cornifrons and Megachile rotundata along a gradient of agricultural intensity3. Assess effects of field-collected pollen in high vs. low agricultural intensity on bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) founder queen survival and reproduction in the lab4. Identify key floral resources across a range of agricultural intensity that are supporting bees using multi-locus DNA metabarcoding onpollen collected by solitary bees, honey bees and present in honey provided by Ohio beekeepers
Project Methods
The landscape around each of the twelve sites along a gradient of agricultural intensitywill be characterized over a 2-km radius centering on the apiary, and will encompass most of the foraging range of honey bees and other bees used in the study (Beekman and Ratnieks 2000, Couvillon et al. 2014). Ground-truthing supplemented by satellite imagery will be used to classify landscapes in the following categories: crop field, forest, treeline, herbaceous patch, herbaceous strip (e.g. field margins), roadside, and residential lot. Crop type will be determined by visual inspection and the USDA Cropland Data Layer ("NASS CropScape" 2017) each year. All landscape data will be analyzed and visualized using QGIS software (QGIS Development Team 2015).Dates for corn planting and soybean bloom, two key events relating to insecticide exposure and floral resource availability, will be ascertained through direct observations of corn planting activity, reports from Extension colleagues, and agricultural statistics ("USDA - National Agricultural Statistics Service" 2016).Pollen collected during the period of soybean bloom in late July and early August will be pooled and tested for >200 pesticides and metabolites at the USDA-AMS lab in Gastonia, NC following a QuEChERS protocol (Camino-Sánchez et al. 2010).Objective 1: Measure honey bee (Apis mellifera) productivity, growth and insecticide exposure along a gradient of agricultural intensity in the corn-soybean agroecosystemCorbicular pollen will be collected at each site using two healthy, queen-right honey bee colonies fitted with bottom-mounted pollen traps (Sundance I). Collection will begin in April each year at least one week before corn-planting and will alternate between colonies to prevent starvation. Pollen will be collected every 3-4 days until two weeks after visible corn planting activity has ceased. Pollen sampling will continue every other week from June - September. Pollen will be pooled by site and stored at -20 ºC. Colonies will be fed or replaced as needed to maintain vigorous pollen collection.Underbasket style dead bee traps (102x51x15 cm) (Human et al. 2013) will be placed in front of four colonies at each site on colonies without pollen traps. Dead bees in traps will be counted and removed on the same days pollen samples are collected. For each sampling date, the number of dead bees ejected per day for each hive will be calculated as the number of bees in the trap divided by the number of days that had elapsed since the previous sampling. If high levels of bee mortality are observed at other times then pollen collected during that period will be subjected to pesticide residue analysis.Detailed colony inspections will be performed to assess the development of four honey bee colonies at each site. Inspections will be performed using a modified Liebfelder method (Delaplane et al. 2013) monthly from April to September. Overwintering survival will be determined in March of the following year. During each inspection, we will assess adult bee and brood populations, pollen, and honey in by estimating the total frame area covered.Objective 2: Measure reproductive success of model solitary stem-nesting bees Osmia cornifrons and Megachile rotundata along a gradient of agricultural intensityWe will take advantage of philopatric behavior of the bees, which ensures that some will return to nest in the place where they emerge and seed artificial domiciles, "trap-nests", with live purchased cocoons of O. cornifrons (Crown Bees) at a rate of 25 males and 25 females per site. The trap-nests will be constructed of grooved boards covered with plexiglass to allow direct observation of the nesting progress. These trapnests will be bundled within shelters and mounted to posts and situated along a south-facing edge of the apiary, one set of boxes with 80 nest holes per apiary. Osmia cocoons will be removed from cold storage and held at 15 ºC for 8 days at least two weeks before corn planting to ensure that the bees emerge and mate before corn seed treatment dust exposure. A tray of clay-rich mud will be maintained near each trap-nest for use by O. cornifrons females in nest construction.Osmia cornifrons nests will be stored in the lab at 24°C once nesting activity has ceased, allowing larvae to develop and pupate. We will collect data on the following reproduction variables: the number of nests per site, the total number of brood cells per site, the average daily rate of brood cell production before, during and after corn planting, survivorship to pupation, and survivorship to adulthood e.g (Goodell 2003, Rundlöf et al. 2015). We will use similar protocols to follow the performance of Megachile rotundata at the same sites. Trap nests of bundled paper tubes will be deployed in the same structures used for the Osmia earlier in the season, but will have smaller groove sizes. These will be seeded with 50 cocoons containing adult bees (verified using x-rays of the cocoons in early June) per site approximately three weeks before flowering of soybean.Objective 3: Assess effects of field-collected pollen in high vs. low agricultural intensity on bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) founder queen survival and reproduction in the labColonies will be constructed containing one mated queen and two workers taken from a commercially reared colony (Koppert Biological System) and housed in queen starter boxes made of corrugated plastic and mesh hardware cloth (Strange 2010). All queens will be fed with pesticide-free pollen ad libitum for one week as the acclimation period. Equal number of queens will then be randomly assigned to high- and low- exposure treatments and will be fed with pollen collected in Year 1 from an apiary with high agricultural intensity and a apiary with low agricultural intensity. Objective 4: Identify key floral resources across a range of agricultural intensification that are supporting bees using multi-locus DNA metabarcoding?The multi-locus DNA metabarcoding will be applied to determine the botanical origins of corbicular honey-bee-collected pollen (Objective 1), as well as pollen residues left behind after pupation from Osmia and Megachile nests (Objective 2).Additionally, small honey samples will be solicited from beekeepers attending the Ohio State Beekeepers Association (OSBA) Fall Meeting held each year in Plain City, OH. Beekeepers will be recruited through an article in the OSBA Newsletter and 2 ounce samples of honey will be collected from beekeepers at the meeting. Landscape analysis using GIS and USDA mapping resourceswill be used to assess the area of corn and soybean cultivation, as well as other land uses, in the areas surrounding the apiary locations.For honey bee pollen samples, 10% of each sample, or the entire sample for those with a mass of less than 15 g, will be diluted 10:1 by weight with distilled water and placed in a 1 quart jar fitted with a blender blade and screw-on lid. Each sample will then be blended for 2 minutes or until no visible pollen pellets remain. Honey sample processing will be performed by isolating pollen from 15 mL of honey using the methods described by Jones and Bryant (Jones and Bryant 2004).Amplicon library products will then be verified with gel electrophoresis and Bioanalyzer analysis, purified with a SeqalPrep Normalization Plate kit, and sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq platform. DNA sequences will be compared to NCBI plant reference sequences for each marker using the UTAX algorithm (Edgar 2013, Sickel et al. 2015) run at the Ohio Supercomputing Center. For increased accuracy, we will only retain plant taxa detected by at least two of the markers analyzed. This multi-locus, consensus-based method limits false positive identifications and increases sensitivity for species-level detection (Richardson, Lin, Quijia, et al. 2015).

Progress 05/01/19 to 04/30/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Research was conducted incollaboration and consultation with fiveOhio beekeepers with apiaries situated in the corn-soybean agroecosystem in Central and North-Central Ohio. Two of these beekeepers served on the advisory panel for the project. Presentations on the findings from this project have been presented to beekeepers groups,including the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association, the Ohio State Beekeepers Association, the TriCounty Beekeepers Association, the Southwest Ohio Beekeepers Association and the Pollinator Pesticide Working Group within the Honey Bee Health Coalition..Additionally, work continued in comminicating the importance of honey bees in soybean production through a meetings of the North Central Soybean Research Program, the Ohio Pesticide Applicator Training Program and the Northwest Ohio Corn and Soybean Day. Changes/Problems:The COVID19 pandemic presented several significant problems in conducting the project as originally proposed. In-person meetings for the Ohio State Beekeepers Association were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 making it impossible to collect honey samples from beekeepers and determine the floral origin of their honey. The extended shutdown of laboratories related to the COVID19 pandemic made pesticide residue analysis of bee-collected pollen samples impossible as the student conducting these experiments graduated. Instead of pesticide residue analysis,we added an additional field component which could be conducted under COVID19 restrictions and included 13 apiaries in North Central Ohio to gather more data on the relationship between soybean bloom and nectar collection by honey bees. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A total of sevenundergraduate researchers were trained in the techniques of honey bee colony management to conduct experiments and fourwere trained in microscopic palynology, one was trained in bee identificationand one was trained to conduct pesticide residue analysis using LC/MS. Fourgraduate students were invoved in conducting research and were trained in colony management, bumble bee colony establishment in the laboratory, Ohio plant identification, pollinator collection and identification, analytical chemistry, microscopic palynologyand molecular biology and bioinformatics to support pollen metabarcoding. These students have made presentations at the Entomological Society of America's Annual Meeting and the American Bee Research Conference over all years of the project. Additionally, the findings from this work constitutes a majority of the research included in the dissertation of one Ph.D. student. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presentations on the findings from this project have been presented to beekeepers groups,including the Ohio State Beekeepers Association, the TriCounty Beekeepers Association, the Southwest Ohio Beekeepers Association and regional beekeeping organizations, including the Eastern Apicultural Society and the Heartland Apicultural Society. The work was also presented to the Pollinator Pesticide Working Group within the Honey Bee Health Coalition. Additionally, work was communicated to soybean growers and pesticide applicators through presentations at a meetingof the North Central Soybean Research Program, the Northwest Ohio Corn and Soybean Dayand the Ohio Pesticide Applicator Training Program.Results have also been communicated back to beekeepers through articles in the Ohio State Beekeepers Association's newsletter and through open access journal publications. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Measure honey bee (Apis mellifera) productivity, growth and insecticide exposure along a gradient of agricultural intensity in the corn-soybean agroecosystem Honey bee colonies were deployed at 13 apiary sites around Central Ohio along a gradient of agricultural intensity (2019-2020) and 13 apiary sites in North Central Ohio where robust soybean honey production has been reported by beekeepers (2020-2021).Colony weights were tracked continuously at all apiaries using Broodminder automated hive scales on a minimum of 2 colonies per site. Colonies in Central Ohio were assessed monthly for frames of bees, brood, pollen and honey as well as varroa mite infestation levels. The number of dead bees ejected by colonies were measured weekly using drop zone dead bee traps. Pollen was collected from all apiary locations using pollen traps and pollen collected in 2019 was subjected to chemical residue analysis using LC/MS at the Campus Chemical Instrument Cluster on the OSU Columbus campus to screen for neonicotinoid insecticides. Results indicate that colony exposure to insecticidal seed treatment dust was low and markedly reduced from a previous study conducted in this region in 2013-2015, indicating that improvements to seed treatment adherence and planting practices have improved. Colonies located at apiary sites in Central Ohio with high or medium agricultural intensity and all colonies in North Central Ohio collected substantial amounts of honey, and gained weight, during July and August around the time of soybean bloom. 2. Measure reproductive success of solitary stem-nesting bees Osmia cornifrons and Megachile rotundata along a gradient of agricultural intensity The field data for this objective was collected during the spring and summer of 2019. Two bee species served as "sentinel" species to assess the quality of the habitat for solitary bees at 13 study sites that varied in the area of corn and soybean surrounding each. We assessed the habitat quality by measuring key demographic variables, such as reproductive success and offspring survivorship. Key results were that corn-soy landscapes are not necessarily poor in flower resources as anticipated, but the area of corn and soy within a 2-km radius of each site influence solitary bee demographic rates. Spring-nesting native Blue Orchard Bees (BOB - Osmia lignaria) were less likely to nest in soybean-heavy landscapes, but more likely to nest in corn-heavy landscapes. Soybean in the landscape had little impact on BOB nesting, productivity, and survival. Summer-nesting Alfalfa Leaf-cutter Bees (ALB - Megachile rotundata) were more likely to nest, produced more offspring and had higher offspring survival in soybean-heavy landscapes. ALB were also more productive and had better offspring survival in sites with abundant flowers in June, but flower abundance was not associated with the amount of corn or soy in the landscape except in August. At the same 13 sites we netted bees on flowers at each site throughout the spring and summer of 2019. These data provide information about the diversity and density of bees and their floral resource use at each site throughout the growing season as a function of the type of landscape and the abundance of flower resources. More than 1,500 bee specimens were collected preserved individually to prevent contamination of pollens between specimens. In addition to noting the species of flower each bee was visiting when captured, we sampled pollens from each bee body for microscopic analysis (Objective 4). 3. Assess effects of field-collected pollen in high vs. low agricultural intensity on bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) founder queen survival and reproduction in the lab Pollen collected from honey bees foraging at 4 apiary sites during corn planting, 2 high agricultural sites and 2 low agricultural sites, was fed to small bumble bee colonies consisting of a wild-caught queen and three worker bumble bees taken from colonies purchased from Koppert Biological. No differences were observed in queen survival or fecundity in tests run over 4 weeks. While colony establishment was poor, possibly due to the poor health of purchased bees, this result is consistent with the low levels of corn seed treatment dust contamination observed in chemical residue analysis of these samples. 4. Identify key floral resources across a range of agricultural intensity that are supporting bees using multi-locus DNA metabarcoding on pollen collected by solitary bees, honey bees and present in honey provided by Ohio beekeepers Beekeepers supplied 45 honey samples collected from across Ohio in 2019 and metabarcoding sequencing of pollen indicates that spring-blooming trees and shrubs were responsible for a large proportion of the honey harvested by participating beekeepers in that year. In 2021 and 2022, all collected nectar samples and spring collected pollen samples were processed and analyzed using pollen metabarcoding and a MetaClassifier method of taxonomic identification. Proportional abundances of detected plant taxa were calculated for each pollen and nectar sample. Analysis of spring 2019 and 2020 pollen and nectar samples were published (McMinn-Sauder et al, 2022) . Results demonstrate that honey bees situated on a gradient of urban and agricultural intensity have very similar spring pollen and nectar diets. Pollen and nectar samples are largely composed of pollen from trees including Malus (apple), Salix (willow), and Prunus (cherry), until Trifolium (clover) enters bloom. In addition, we demonstrated that honey bee foraging patterns for pollen and nectar differ in this landscape. While many plant taxa were foraged in small quantities in pollen samples, nectar samples were composed of fewer plant taxa foraged in more even quantities. This suggests that there are few available quality nectar resources in either landscape and highlights the importance ofincluding nectar producing flowers in pollinator plantings. Results from pollen metabarcoding analysis of nectar samples collected in summers of 2019 and 2020 demonstrates a tradeoff between Glycine (soybeans) and Trifolium (clovers) in summer nectar foraging. We found that honey bees in predominantly agricultural landscapes forage Glycine in higher proportions than Trifolium. As agricultural intensity decreases, this pattern shifts to increased abundance of Trifolium pollen compared to Glycine in collected nectar samples. Under Objective 1 we also identified a period of large weight gain in colonies with high surrounding agricultural intensity during soybean bloom in the region. This result highlights the importance of soybeans as a summer nectar resource for honey bees positioned in agricultural landscapes, highlighting their potential role in summer honey production. These results are currently being drafted into a manuscript for publication. Pollen identification using microscopy was conducted on pollen adhered to wild bees caught in Objective 2. This extends the information about flower use to all plant species visited throughout the most recent foraging bouts rather than just the current flower species. A digital reference collection of microscopic pollen morphology was generated and protocols were developed for completing microscopic identification of pollens from bee bodies.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Lin, C.-H., S. Suresh, E. Matcham, P. Monagan, H. Curtis, R. T. Richardson, and R. M. Johnson. 2022. Soybean is a Common Nectar Source for Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in a Midwestern Agricultural Landscape. J. Econ. Entomol.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H., C.-H. Lin, T. Eaton, and R. Johnson. 2022. A comparison of springtime pollen and nectar foraging in honey bees kept in urban and agricultural environments. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 6.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H. 2022. Honey bee foraging in Ohio agricultural Environments. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Entomology, They Ohio State University.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H. B. G., R. T. Richardson, M. Smith, and R. M. Johnson. 2019. Measuring honey bee utilization of CRP pollinator plantings using DNA metabarcoding. 2019 North Central Branch Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, Cincinnati, OH.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H. B. G., R. T. Richardson, M. Smith, and R. M. Johnson. 2019. Measuring honey bee utilization of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) pollinator plantings using DNA metabarcoding. Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America, St. Louis, MO.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Suresh, S.; Lin, C-H.; Emma, M.; Richardson, R.T. et al. 2020. Honey bees waggle dance shows foraging on soybeans in northern Ohio. Proceedings of the American Bee Research Conference. Insects 11: 362.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H.; Richardson, R.T.; Smith, M.; Johnson, R.M. 2020. Measuring honey bee utilization of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) pollinator planting using DNA metabarcoding. Proceedings of the American Bee Research Conference. Insects 11: 362.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Hearon, L. 2019. Soybean cropland as foraging source for the European honey bee and predictor of honey content. Undergraduate thesis, Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Goodell, K. 2022. Risks and resources of corn-soy landscape for bees. Poster presentation, Ecological Society of America, Montreal, Quebec.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Johnson, R.M.; H. McMinn-Sauder; N. Sammons; C.H. Lin. 2021. Factors affecting attractiveness of soybeans to honey bees. Proceedings of the American Bee Research Conference. Bee Culture. https://www.beeculture.com/american-bee-research-conference-abstracts/
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H.; C.H. Lin; R. Johnson. 2021. Using colony weight monitoring to identify flowers important for honey production in the Ohio agroecosystem. Proceedings of the American Bee Research Conference. Bee Culture. https://www.beeculture.com/american-bee-research-conference-abstracts/
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H.; C. Lin; T. Eaton; R. Johnson. 2021. Flowers contributing to colony weight gain and honey production in an agriculturally intensive Midwestern landscape. Platform presentation, American Bee Research Conference, Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: McKenzie, H; R. Johnson; C-H Lin. 2022. Developing a methodology to detect honey bee foraging using bioacoustics analysis. Platform presentation, American Bee Research Conference, Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Lin, C.-H.; Passifiume, W.; R.M. Johnson. 2022. Show me the honey (and soybean too!). Platform presentation, American Bee Research Conference, Virtual.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Forrester, K. 2022. Measuring factors affecting honey bee attraction to soybeans using nectar and bioacoustics monitoring. M.S. Thesis. Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Hearon, L.; Johnson, R.M. 2019. Establishing a correlation between soybean presence and soybean foraging by A. mellifera. Proceedings of the American Bee Research Conference. Insects 11: 17.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H. In preparation. Honey bee foraging in the Ohio agroecosystem. Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H.; C-H Lin; R.M. Johnson. In preparation. The role of spring trees in Ohio honey production. To be submitted to Apidologie.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H.; D.B. Sponsler; T. Colin; H. Gaines Day; G. Quinlan; A. Smart; W. Meikle. In preparation. Next-generation colony weight monitoring: a review and prospectus.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H.; C-H Lin; T. Eaton; R.M. Johnson. In preparation. Forage benefits of agricultural landscapes for honey bee colonies in summer.


Progress 05/01/20 to 04/30/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Research continued in collaboration and consultation with fourOhio beekeepers with apiaries situated in the corn-soybean agroecosystem in Central and North-Central Ohio. Two of these beekeepersserved on the advisory panel for the project which met virtually in April 2020. Presentations on the findings from this project have been presented to beekeepers groups, including the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association, the Ohio State Beekeepers Association, the TriCounty Beekeepers Association, the Southwest Ohio Beekeepers Association and the Pollinator Pesticide Working Group within the Honey Bee Health Coalition..Additionally, work continued in comminicating the importance of honey bees in soybean production through a meetings of the North Central Soybean Research Program. Changes/Problems:The extended shutdown of laboratories related to the COVID19 pandemic made pesticide residue analysis of bee-collected pollen samples impossible as the student conducting these experiments graduated. Instead of pesticide residue analysis, we added an additional field component which could be conducted under COVID19 restrictions and included 13 apiaries in North Central Ohio to gather more data on the relationship between soybean bloom and nectar collection by honey bees. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Four undergraduate researchers have been trained in the techniques of honey bee colony management and twohave been trained in microscopic palynology. A graduate student presented findings at the national Entomological Society of American annual meeting and the American Bee Research Conference in 2020 and 2021. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presentations on the findings from this project have been presented to beekeepers groups, including the Ohio State Beekeepers Association, the TriCounty Beekeepers Association, the Southwest Ohio Beekeepers Association and the Pollinator Pesticide Working Group within the Honey Bee Health Coalition. Additionally, work continued in comminicating the importance of honey bees in soybean production through a meetings of the North Central Soybean Research Program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Data collection in 2021 will be focused on the contribution of soybean to honey production in North Central Ohio, an area in which beekeepers anecdotally report seeing large amounts of honey production related to soybean bloom.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Measure honey bee (Apis mellifera) productivity, growth and insecticide exposure along a gradient of agricultural intensity in the corn-soybean agroecosystem Honey bee colonies were deployed at 12apiary sites around Central Ohio along a gradient of agricultural intensity. Colonies weights were again tracked continuously using Broodminder automated hive scales, with the addition of 13colonies in North-Central Ohio to assess bee utilization of soybean and other bee-attractive flowers.Colonies in Central Ohio were assessed monthly for frames of bees, brood, pollen and honey as well as varroa mite infestation levels. The number of dead bees ejected by colonies were measured weekly using drop zone dead bee traps. Overall, colonies in high-agriculture sites were found to gain more weight over the course of the summer, consistent with bee utilization of soybean for honey production. 2. Measure reproductive success of solitary stem-nesting bees Osmia cornifrons and Megachile rotundata along a gradient of agricultural intensity Nesting materials for solitary bees were again deployed at the 12 remainingapiary sites at least 100 m distant from the bee colonies that were also resident at these sites. Counts of wild Megachile bees were made using bees that were naturally present and nesting in standard leafcutter bee nesting blocks. 3. Assess effects of field-collected pollen in high vs. low agricultural intensity on bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) founder queen survival and reproduction in the lab Given concerns about the health of purchased bumble bee colonies, in 2020 wild bumble bee queens were collected in April 2020 and encouraged to establish new colonies in containers while being fed pollen collected from honey bees foraging at 4 apiary sites during corn planting, 2 high agricultural sites and 2 low agricultural sites. Again, nodifferences were observed in queen survival or fecudity in tests run over 4 weeks, but colony establishment was generally poor.This result is consistent with the low levels of corn seed treatment dust contamination observed in chemical residue analysis of these samples. 4. Identify key floral resources across a range of agricultural intensity that are supporting bees using multi-locus DNA metabarcoding on pollen collected by solitary bees, honey bees and present in honey provided by Ohio beekeepers. Pollen and nectar samples from apiaries in Central Ohio, and nectar samples from Northern Ohio,werecollected and the floral sources of these resources were identified using pollen metabarcoding. Pollen collected from all sites contained more plant species than nectar, though there was reduced diversity of plants contributing to pollen collection in more agriculturally intensive sites. The representation of plant species in nectar samples was much reduced compared to pollen, indicating that most nectar foraging by honey bees takes place on a reduced set of plants in all environments.

Publications


    Progress 05/01/19 to 04/30/20

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Research was conducted in collaboration and consultation with four Ohio beekeepers with apiaries situated in the corn-soybean agroecosystem, two of which served on the advisory panel for the project which met in December 2019. Presentations on the findings from this project have been presented to beekeepers groups, including the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association, the Ohio State Beekeepers Association, the Heartland Apicultural Society and the Eastern Apicultural Society. Additionally, work has begun comminicating the importance of honey bees in soybean production through a meeting of the North Central Soybean Research Program. Changes/Problems:COVID19 restrictions will delay lab work (chemical residue analysis, pollen metabarcoding, bumble bee colony experiments), but field work at apiary sites will continue as the bee colonies are already present and this work presents a low risk for virus transmission. It is anticipated that a no-cost extension will be needed to complete these components after lab occupancy restrictions are lifted, hopefully in 2021. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Five undergraduate researchers have been trained in the techniques of honey bee colony management and three have been trained in microscopic palynology. A graduate student presented findings at the national Entomological Society of American annual meeting in 2019. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presentations resulting in this work have been presented to beeekeeper groups in and out of Ohio, including the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association (the beekepeer group representing the area in which work was performed) and the Ohio State Beekeepers Association. Regional beekeeping organizations, the Heartland Apicultrual Society and Eastern Apicultural Society, also received reports on work through oral presentations at their annual meetings. Results of pollen analysis on beekeeper-supplied honey are in the process of being prepared for dissemination back to beekeepers, and the Ohio beekeeping community, through a report in the OSBA quarterly newsletter. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?An additional year of data will be collected in summer 2020 from the same apiary locations using the same methods previously described. This work is not anticipated to be affected by COVID19 restrictions. Chemical analysis of pollen samples to determine pesticide residues will be conducted on 2020 samples as soon as the lab reopens following the end or restrictions. Additional nesting blocks for solitary bees and an assessment of floral resources available at apiary sites will be conducted in 2020. Beekeeper-supplied honey samples will not be available for 2020 as the Ohio State Beekeepers Association will not be holding an in-person meeting at which samples can be collected.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Measure honey bee (Apis mellifera) productivity, growth and insecticide exposure along a gradient of agricultural intensity in the corn-soybean agroecosystem Honey bee colonies were deployed at 13 apiary sites around Central Ohio along a gradient of agricultural intensity. Colonies weights were tracked continuously using Broodminder automated hive scales. Colonies were assessed monthly for frames of bees, brood, pollen and honey as well as varroa mite infestation levels. The number of dead bees ejected by colonies were measured weekly using drop zone dead bee traps. Pollen was collected from all apiary locations using Sundance pollen traps and collected pollen was subjected to chemical residue analysis using LC/MS at the Campus Chemical Instrument Cluster on the OSU Columbus campus. Preliminary results indicate that colony exposure to seed treatment dust was markedly reduced from previous years, indicating that improvements to seed treatment adherence and planting practices may have improved. Final analysis of data awaits collection and analysis of a second year of data. 2. Measure reproductive success of solitary stem-nesting beesOsmia cornifronsandMegachile rotundataalong a gradient of agricultural intensity Nesting materials for solitary bees were deployed at all 13 apiary sites at least 100 m distant from the bee colonies that were also resident at these sites. Osmia were "seeded" using purchased pupae and nesting success recorded. Megachile bees were not seeded and counts were made using bees that were naturally present. X-ray analysis of bee development is ongoing, pending repair and access to an X-ray machine. 3. Assess effects of field-collected pollen in high vs. low agricultural intensity on bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) founder queen survival and reproduction in the lab Pollen collected from honey bees foraging at 4apiary sites during corn planting, 2 high agricultural sites and 2 low agricultural sites,was fed to small bumble bee colonies consisting of a wild-caught queen and three worker bumble bees taken from colonies purchased from Koppert Biological. No differences were observed in queen survival or fecudity in tests run over 4 weeks. This result is consistent with the low levels of corn seed treatment dust contamination observed in chemical residue analysis of these samples. 4. Identify key floral resources across a range of agricultural intensity that are supporting bees using multi-locus DNA metabarcoding onpollen collected by solitary bees, honey bees and present in honey provided by Ohio beekeepers. DNA metabarcoding on spring and summer pollen samples collected from 13 apiary locations has been completed and awaits bioinformatic analysis in combination with samples collected in 2020. Beekeepers supplied approximately 45 honey samples collected from across Ohio and metabarcoding sequencing has been completed and is awaiting analysis. Honey samples are also in the process of being analyzed for key pollen types using microscopic palnynology to validate metabarcoding results.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Lin, C.-H., D. B. Sponsler, R. T. Richardson, H. D. Watters, D. A. Glinski, W. M. Henderson, J. M. Minucci, E. H. Lee, S. T. Purucker, and R. M. Johnson. 2020. Honey bees and neonicotinoid-treated corn seed: contamination, exposure, and effects. Environ. Toxicol. Chem.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Richardson, R. T., H. R. Curtis, E. G. Matcham, C.-H. Lin, S. Suresh, D. B. Sponsler, L. E. Hearon, and R. M. Johnson. 2019. Quantitative multi-locus metabarcoding and waggle dance interpretation reveal honey bee spring foraging patterns in Midwest agroecosystems. Mol. Ecol. 28: 686697.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Richardson, R. T., T. D. Eaton, C.-H. Lin, G. Cherry, R. M. Johnson, and D. B. Sponsler. 2020. Application of plant metabarcoding to identify diverse honeybee pollen forage along an urban-agricultural gradient. Mol. Ecol.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: McMinn-Sauder, H., R. Richardson, T. Eaton, M. Smith, and R. Johnson. 2020. Flowers in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Pollinator Plantings and the Upper Midwest Agricultural Landscape Supporting Honey Bees. Insects. 11.