Source: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS submitted to
INDIRECT AND INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF AGROCHEMICALS ON POLLINATOR HEALTH IN RESTORED HABITATS: IMPACTS ON SOILS, PLANTS, AND NATIVE BEES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
NEW
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1027844
Grant No.
2022-67013-36273
Project No.
ILLU-000-672
Proposal No.
2021-08705
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
A1113
Project Start Date
Aug 1, 2022
Project End Date
Jul 31, 2025
Grant Year
2022
Project Director
Harmon-Threatt, A.
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
2001 S. Lincoln Ave.
URBANA,IL 61801
Performing Department
Entomology
Non Technical Summary
Native pollinators need healthy ecosystems, but pollinator habitats in agricultural areas can be impacted by pesticides used in neighboring farm fields. While insecticides can directly affect pollinator health, chemicals like fungicides can indirectly impact pollinators by acting on the microbes and plants on which pollinators depend. The presence of these pesticides could also alter pollinator behavior in ways that change their exposure to potentially harmful chemicals. In this collaborative project, we focus on these indirect effects, which can lead to "ecological surprises" in pollinator conservation. Our team has preliminary data from a pollinator habitat restoration experiment, where we find that regular exposure of plants and soils to insecticide and fungicide treatment changes microbial function in the soil and alters the availability of floral resources to foraging bees. In this collaborative project, we will build on this experiment in order to accomplish two overarching research objectives: 1) Determine how pesticide-altered soil and plant microbiomes affect pollinator and plant health; and 2) Investigate how pesticides affect nesting and foraging decisions of native bees. We will also identify key microbial agents of pollinator health. This project addresses two priority areas of the Pollinator Health program: Factors that influence the abundance, diversity, and health of pollinators; and Functions of the microbiome associated with pollinators and their role in promoting healthy populations.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2113010107025%
2113085107025%
1020110107025%
1365220107025%
Knowledge Area
211 - Insects, Mites, and Other Arthropods Affecting Plants; 102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships; 136 - Conservation of Biological Diversity;

Subject Of Investigation
0110 - Soil; 3010 - Honey bees; 3085 - Other bees (non-Apis bees) - All bees except Apis cerana; includes Bombas, Alfalfa leaf-cutter; 5220 - Pesticides;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology;
Goals / Objectives
The overall objective of this project is to characterize the indirect and interactive effects of fungicides and insecticides on native pollinator health in restored pollinator habitats. Our central hypothesis is that fungicides and insecticides impact pollinator health by altering the composition and function of critical soil and plant microbial associations that influence bee survival and behavior. These indirect influences of pollinator health can lead to ecological surprises that affect successful restoration and conservation efforts, and this project will address critical knowledge gaps about different pathways through which pesticides affect pollinators. Our project will generate a deeper understanding of the use and misuse of pesticides in pollinator conservation efforts, and discovery of the varied roles that plants, microbes and bee behavior play in pollinator health. We will test our central hypothesis, and thereby accomplish the overall objective of this proposal, by pursuing the following goals: (1) Quantify the effects of pesticide-altered soil microbiota on the health and survival of ground-nesting bees. We will accomplish this goal through a series of lab-based mesocosm experiments using live and sterilized soils derived from an ongoing field experiment that includes pesticide and fungicide addition. (2) Quantify the effects of pesticide-altered soil and plant microbiota on the health, survival, and population dynamics of "bee plant" species that are beneficial for pollinator health. We will accomplish this goal through greenhouse-based experiments using live and sterilized soils from our ongoing field experiment. (3) Determine how pesticide- and fungicide-mediated changes in soil microbiota affect foraging and nesting decisions of bees. We will accomplish this goal using lab-based behavior trials using soils inoculated with live microbes and insecticide and fungicide, and we will also document pollinator foraging behavior in the field using plants grown under controlled conditions to disentangle the relative effects of pesticides and microbe-mediated changes.
Project Methods
This project leverages an ongoing pollinator habitat restoration experiment that includes annual insecticide and fungicide application treatments. We will use this experiment to make field-based observations of pollinator behavior in pesticide-contaminated and pesticide-free plots. We will use this experiment to generate pesticide-impacted "legacy" soil and plant-associated microbial communities that we can use in controlled mesocosm and greenhouse-based studies. We will expose bees in their ground-nesting life stages to these soils in mesocosms that allow us to monitor bee health and survival over the course of development. Comparison of these treatments to bees exposed to sterilized soil inoculum will allow us to quantify the microbial role in bee health and survival, and comparisons among the different live soil conditions will allow us to quantify how the pesticide legacy affects bee health outcomes. Similarly, we will conduct greenhouse experiments using important "bee plants" growing in live and sterilized legacy soils to determine how pesticide legacies affect microbes that determine plant health and performance. We will characterize bee- and plant-associated microbial communities in these mesocosm and greenhouse experiments using high-throughput Illumina DNA sequencing, and we will use Bayesian inference to identify microbes that respond to pesticide legacies and microbes that are correlated to plant or bee health. Finally, we will conduct controlled foraging choice experiments using plants growing in pesticide-contaminated and pesticide-free soils to determine if pesticide presence in plant tissues or soils influences pollinator foraging behavior.

Progress 08/01/23 to 07/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have been able to train an additional 4 undergraduate students (some supported with other means) and 2 MS students as well as a PhD student who is working on belowground fungi and the modifications they see due to Neonicotinoids. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have taken an additional graduate studentwho will begin more nesting experiments with fungicides which will tackle many of the Goals under 3. There is also a graduate student who will examine parasites in contaminated habitats. This was not outlined in our original objectives but is highly relevant to the health of native bees in these conditions.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Noah Brown completed a very interesting Master's thesis on the impacts of fungicides on native prairie plants that can impact the foraging, growth, and nurtrition available to native bees. This work is highly relevant to Goal 2. Jacob Ridgeway also completed an interesting Master's thesis on the belowground soil microbiota community and ground dwelling insects in sites contaminated with neonictoinoids and fungicides. This was relevant to Goals 1-3. In support of objective #1, we have amassed a culture collection of leaf endophytes (bacteria and fungi) isolated from fungicide-sprayed and fungicide-free plants of the prairie restoration experiment described in the proposal (section 3.1). We have also characterized the impact of several of these isolates on native plant growth in a greenhouse experiment. In support of objective #1, we have initiated a greenhouse experiment as outlined in the proposal (section 3.2.2.2). This will allow us to quantify the effect of pesticide-altered microbial communities on the growth and floral characteristics of important bee plants.

Publications

  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Submitted Year Published: 2024 Citation: effects of neonicotinoids and fungicides on soil invertebrate communities and litter decomposition within restored prairie.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Submitted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fungicide and Fertilizer-Mediated Changes in Prairie Plant-Foliar Fungal Endophyte Interactions
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mya Reyes, How fungicide alters the hidden mycobiome of a restored prairie system
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Francesca Noble, Unraveling the identity of endophytic bacteria in native prairie plants, 2023 Illinois Summer Research Symposium, July 14 (2023),
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Jacob Chow, Jacob Ridgeway, Sophia Gardner, Jessamine Britt. Exploring bee Grass Relationships in Contaminated Environemnts. Undergraduate Research Symposium
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Jacob Chow, Jacob Ridgeway, Sophia Gardner, Jessamine Britt. Biomass and Mycorrhizal Colonization in contaminated habitats. Undergraduate Research Symposium
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Noah Brown, Prairie plant species differ in their resilience to fungicide-induced alterations of foliar endophytic mycobiomes, 2024 Midwest Microbiome Symposium, May 13-14 (2024), West Lafayette, IN


Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?With 3 gradaute students and 4 undergraduate workers within the project there have been many opportunities for training. Most of the undergraduates have had little field work experience and were able to develop and pursue an independent project. The graduate students have built new skills in data analysis, lab and field techniques that they did not have previously. We anticiapte 3-4 papers to come from this work which will allow further development in writing. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continued field, lab and greenhouse work will help us meet our goals. The severe drought in the early summer last year delayed some projects and we anticipate being able to make better progress on Objective 3.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The two graduate students initiatied projects to address questions 1 and 2 on how soil conditions affect plant and insect responses. One is a greenhouse based study to examine fungal diversity in and on plants and the effects this has on the plants. The other is a field based study examining the fungal effects on ground dwelling arthropods.

Publications