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Land conversion and pesticide use degrade forage areas for honey bees in America’s beekeeping epicenter

A diverse range of threats have been associated with managed-bee declines globally. Recent increases of two known threats, land-use change and pesticide use, have resulted from agricultural expansion and intensification notably in the top honey-producing state in the United States: North Dakota. Thi...

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Autores principales: Dixon, Dan J., Zheng, Haochi, Otto, Clint R. V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8118293/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33983988
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251043
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author Dixon, Dan J.
Zheng, Haochi
Otto, Clint R. V.
author_facet Dixon, Dan J.
Zheng, Haochi
Otto, Clint R. V.
author_sort Dixon, Dan J.
collection PubMed
description A diverse range of threats have been associated with managed-bee declines globally. Recent increases of two known threats, land-use change and pesticide use, have resulted from agricultural expansion and intensification notably in the top honey-producing state in the United States: North Dakota. This study investigated the dual threat from land conversion and pesticide use surrounding ~14,000 registered apiaries in North Dakota from 2001 to 2014. We estimated the annual total insecticide use (kg) on major crops within 1.6 km of apiary sites. Of the eight insecticides quantified, six showed significant increasing trends over the time period. Specifically, applications of the newly established neonicotinoids Chlothianidin, Imidacloprid and Thiamethoxam, increased annually by 1329 kg, 686 kg, 795 kg, respectively. Also, the use of Chlorpyrifos, which was well-established in the state by 2001 and is highly toxic to honey bees, increased by ~8,800 kg annually from 6,500 kg in 2001 to 115,000 kg in 2014 on corn, soybeans and wheat. We further evaluated the relative quality changes of natural/semi-natural land covers surrounding apiaries in 2006, 2010 and 2014, a period of significant increases in cropland area. In areas surrounding apiaries, we observed changes in multiple indices of forage quality that reflect the deteriorating landscape surrounding registered apiary sites due to land-use change and pesticide-use increases. Overall, our results suggest that the application of foliar-applied insecticides, including pyrethroids and one organophosphate, increased surrounding apiaries when the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments surged and the area for producing corn and soybeans expanded. Spatially, these threats were most pronounced in southeastern North Dakota, a region hosting a high density of apiary sites that has recently experienced corn and soybean expansion. Our results highlight the value of natural and semi-natural land covers as sources of pollinator forage and refugia for bees against pesticide exposure. Our study provides insights for targeting conservation efforts to improve forage quality benefiting managed pollinators.
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spelling pubmed-81182932021-05-24 Land conversion and pesticide use degrade forage areas for honey bees in America’s beekeeping epicenter Dixon, Dan J. Zheng, Haochi Otto, Clint R. V. PLoS One Research Article A diverse range of threats have been associated with managed-bee declines globally. Recent increases of two known threats, land-use change and pesticide use, have resulted from agricultural expansion and intensification notably in the top honey-producing state in the United States: North Dakota. This study investigated the dual threat from land conversion and pesticide use surrounding ~14,000 registered apiaries in North Dakota from 2001 to 2014. We estimated the annual total insecticide use (kg) on major crops within 1.6 km of apiary sites. Of the eight insecticides quantified, six showed significant increasing trends over the time period. Specifically, applications of the newly established neonicotinoids Chlothianidin, Imidacloprid and Thiamethoxam, increased annually by 1329 kg, 686 kg, 795 kg, respectively. Also, the use of Chlorpyrifos, which was well-established in the state by 2001 and is highly toxic to honey bees, increased by ~8,800 kg annually from 6,500 kg in 2001 to 115,000 kg in 2014 on corn, soybeans and wheat. We further evaluated the relative quality changes of natural/semi-natural land covers surrounding apiaries in 2006, 2010 and 2014, a period of significant increases in cropland area. In areas surrounding apiaries, we observed changes in multiple indices of forage quality that reflect the deteriorating landscape surrounding registered apiary sites due to land-use change and pesticide-use increases. Overall, our results suggest that the application of foliar-applied insecticides, including pyrethroids and one organophosphate, increased surrounding apiaries when the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments surged and the area for producing corn and soybeans expanded. Spatially, these threats were most pronounced in southeastern North Dakota, a region hosting a high density of apiary sites that has recently experienced corn and soybean expansion. Our results highlight the value of natural and semi-natural land covers as sources of pollinator forage and refugia for bees against pesticide exposure. Our study provides insights for targeting conservation efforts to improve forage quality benefiting managed pollinators. Public Library of Science 2021-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8118293/ /pubmed/33983988 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251043 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Dixon, Dan J.
Zheng, Haochi
Otto, Clint R. V.
Land conversion and pesticide use degrade forage areas for honey bees in America’s beekeeping epicenter
title Land conversion and pesticide use degrade forage areas for honey bees in America’s beekeeping epicenter
title_full Land conversion and pesticide use degrade forage areas for honey bees in America’s beekeeping epicenter
title_fullStr Land conversion and pesticide use degrade forage areas for honey bees in America’s beekeeping epicenter
title_full_unstemmed Land conversion and pesticide use degrade forage areas for honey bees in America’s beekeeping epicenter
title_short Land conversion and pesticide use degrade forage areas for honey bees in America’s beekeeping epicenter
title_sort land conversion and pesticide use degrade forage areas for honey bees in america’s beekeeping epicenter
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8118293/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33983988
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251043
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