Critical links between biodiversity and health in wild bee conservation

M A Parreño; C Alaux; J-L Brunet; L Buydens; M Filipiak; M Henry; A Keller; A-M Klein; M Kuhlmann; C Leroy; I Meeus; E Palmer-Young; N Piot; F Requier; F Ruedenauer; G Smagghe; P C Stevenson; S D Leonhardt

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2021.11.013

Critical links between biodiversity and health in wild bee conservation

Trends Ecol Evol. 2022 Apr;37(4):309-321. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.11.013. Epub 2021 Dec 23.

Authors

M A Parreño¹, C Alaux², J-L Brunet², L Buydens³, M Filipiak⁴, M Henry², A Keller⁵, A-M Klein⁶, M Kuhlmann⁷, C Leroy², I Meeus³, E Palmer-Young⁸, N Piot³, F Requier⁹, F Ruedenauer¹⁰, G Smagghe³, P C Stevenson¹¹, S D Leonhardt¹²

Affiliations

¹ Plant-Insect Interactions, TUM School of Life Science Systems, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Freising, Germany. Electronic address: [email protected].
² INRAE, Abeilles et Environnement, Avignon, France.
³ Laboratory of Agrozoology, Department of Plants and Crops, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
⁴ Faculty of Biology, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁵ Center for Computational and Theoretical Biology, and Department of Bioinformatics, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany.
⁶ Chair of Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
⁷ Zoological Museum of Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.
⁸ US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD, USA.
⁹ Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, IRD, UMR Évolution, Génomes, Comportement, et Écologie, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
¹⁰ Plant-Insect Interactions, TUM School of Life Science Systems, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Freising, Germany.
¹¹ Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Surrey TW9 3AE, UK; University of Greenwich, London, UK.
¹² Plant-Insect Interactions, TUM School of Life Science Systems, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Freising, Germany. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 34955328
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.11.013

Abstract

Wild bee populations are declining due to human activities, such as land use change, which strongly affect the composition and diversity of available plants and food sources. The chemical composition of food (i.e., nutrition) in turn determines the health, resilience, and fitness of bees. For pollinators, however, the term 'health' is recent and is subject to debate, as is the interaction between nutrition and wild bee health. We define bee health as a multidimensional concept in a novel integrative framework linking bee biological traits (physiology, stoichiometry, and disease) and environmental factors (floral diversity and nutritional landscapes). Linking information on tolerated nutritional niches and health in different bee species will allow us to better predict their distribution and responses to environmental change, and thus support wild pollinator conservation.

Keywords: Hymenoptera; biodiversity loss; conservation; ecosystem services; physiology; plant–insect interactions; pollination; pollinators.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Bees
Biodiversity*
Ecosystem
Flowers / physiology
Phenotype
Plants
Pollination* / physiology

Grants and funding

BB/T014210/1/BB_/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom