About this Research Topic
During the last decades, pollinator communities have been facing pressing challenges worldwide. Honey bees and other bee species provide crucial pollination services and greatly contribute to the stability and sustainability of the ecosystems. The problem of pollinator decline is not new. It has persisted throughout the last decades, particularly after the spread of the colony collapse disorder in 2006. To date, most of the proposed solutions have addressed individual factors in a reductionist manner. Such a strategy does not account for the cascade of events and ramifications a singular change could induce on all other interconnected factors. Bees are highly sophisticated insects with complex social behavior. They must forage outside their colonies, intertwining complex ecosystems and foraging environment stressors with pollinator decline. A few recent advances can be cited here:
1- Novel varroa mite treatments less harmful to bees
2- Better diet supplements for honey bees
3- Providing pollinator-friendly plants in unused lands
4- Improvement in hive insulation materials for overwintering
5- Mitigation strategies for wild bees
These efforts could be productive, but do not offer a long-term and sustainable strategy for the question at hand.
The recent surge of honey bee diseases and pathogens, winter mortality, poor nutrition, lack of natural habitats and forage, and a decline in genetic diversity, are all but alarming signs calling for collective actions. A large spectrum of biotic and abiotic stressors synergistically affect bees while operating in diverse ecosystems. Despite its complexity, decoupling such synergy and understanding the interactions and impacts of its components on bee health is the objective of this research topic. Such challenges are undoubtedly very intriguing to our peers and the bee scientific community at large. From a practical standpoint, mitigating these stressors requires sustainable strategies that involve implementing new practices, novel cures and drugs, habitats with higher nutritional values, and much more. This topic will shed more light on these aspects in the search for healthier and more sustained pollinator communities. We welcome, original research, review articles, as well as brief research reports.
1- Novel varroa mite treatments less harmful to bees
2- Better diet supplements for honey bees
3- Providing pollinator-friendly plants in unused lands
4- Improvement in hive insulation materials for overwintering
5- Mitigation strategies for wild bees
These efforts could be productive, but do not offer a long-term and sustainable strategy for the question at hand.
The recent surge of honey bee diseases and pathogens, winter mortality, poor nutrition, lack of natural habitats and forage, and a decline in genetic diversity, are all but alarming signs calling for collective actions. A large spectrum of biotic and abiotic stressors synergistically affect bees while operating in diverse ecosystems. Despite its complexity, decoupling such synergy and understanding the interactions and impacts of its components on bee health is the objective of this research topic. Such challenges are undoubtedly very intriguing to our peers and the bee scientific community at large. From a practical standpoint, mitigating these stressors requires sustainable strategies that involve implementing new practices, novel cures and drugs, habitats with higher nutritional values, and much more. This topic will shed more light on these aspects in the search for healthier and more sustained pollinator communities. We welcome, original research, review articles, as well as brief research reports.
Keywords: Apis mellifera, non-Apis, honey bee, bee diseases, wild bees, genetic diversity, functional genomics, varroa mite, biotic stressors, abiotic stressors, habitats, landscape compositions, forage
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