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Winter weight loss of different subspecies of honey bee Apis mellifera colonies (Linnaeus, 1758) in southwestern Sweden

Honey bees are currently facing mounting pressures that have resulted in population declines in many parts of the world. In northern climates winter is a bottleneck for honey bees and a thorough understanding of the colonies’ ability to withstand the winter is needed in order to protect the bees fro...

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Autores principales: Norrström, Niclas, Niklasson, Mats, Leidenberger, Sonja
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8516218/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34648553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258398
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author Norrström, Niclas
Niklasson, Mats
Leidenberger, Sonja
author_facet Norrström, Niclas
Niklasson, Mats
Leidenberger, Sonja
author_sort Norrström, Niclas
collection PubMed
description Honey bees are currently facing mounting pressures that have resulted in population declines in many parts of the world. In northern climates winter is a bottleneck for honey bees and a thorough understanding of the colonies’ ability to withstand the winter is needed in order to protect the bees from further decline. In this study the influence of weather variables on colony weight loss was studied over one winter (2019–2020) in two apiaries (32 colonies in total) in southwestern Sweden with weather stations recording wind and temperature at 5-min intervals. Three subspecies of honey bees and one hybrid were studied: the native Apis mellifera mellifera, the Italian A. m. ligustica, the Carniolan A. m. carnica and the hybrid Buckfast. Additionally, we recorded Varroa mite infestation. To analyze factors involved in resource consumption, three modelling approaches using weather and weight data were developed: the first links daily consumption rates with environmental variables, the second modelled the cumulative weight change over time, and the third estimated weight change over time taking light intensity and temperature into account. Weight losses were in general low (0.039 ± 0.013kg/day and colony) and comparable to southern locations, likely due to an exceptionally warm winter (average temperature 3.5°C). Weight losses differed only marginally between subspecies with indications that A. m. mellifera was having a more conservative resource consumption, but more studies are needed to confirm this. We did not find any effect of Varroa mite numbers on weight loss. Increased light intensity and temperature both triggered the resource consumption in honey bees. The temperature effect on resource consumption is in accordance with the metabolic theory of ecology. The consequences of these findings on honey bee survival under predicted climate changes, is still an open question that needs further analysis.
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spelling pubmed-85162182021-10-15 Winter weight loss of different subspecies of honey bee Apis mellifera colonies (Linnaeus, 1758) in southwestern Sweden Norrström, Niclas Niklasson, Mats Leidenberger, Sonja PLoS One Research Article Honey bees are currently facing mounting pressures that have resulted in population declines in many parts of the world. In northern climates winter is a bottleneck for honey bees and a thorough understanding of the colonies’ ability to withstand the winter is needed in order to protect the bees from further decline. In this study the influence of weather variables on colony weight loss was studied over one winter (2019–2020) in two apiaries (32 colonies in total) in southwestern Sweden with weather stations recording wind and temperature at 5-min intervals. Three subspecies of honey bees and one hybrid were studied: the native Apis mellifera mellifera, the Italian A. m. ligustica, the Carniolan A. m. carnica and the hybrid Buckfast. Additionally, we recorded Varroa mite infestation. To analyze factors involved in resource consumption, three modelling approaches using weather and weight data were developed: the first links daily consumption rates with environmental variables, the second modelled the cumulative weight change over time, and the third estimated weight change over time taking light intensity and temperature into account. Weight losses were in general low (0.039 ± 0.013kg/day and colony) and comparable to southern locations, likely due to an exceptionally warm winter (average temperature 3.5°C). Weight losses differed only marginally between subspecies with indications that A. m. mellifera was having a more conservative resource consumption, but more studies are needed to confirm this. We did not find any effect of Varroa mite numbers on weight loss. Increased light intensity and temperature both triggered the resource consumption in honey bees. The temperature effect on resource consumption is in accordance with the metabolic theory of ecology. The consequences of these findings on honey bee survival under predicted climate changes, is still an open question that needs further analysis. Public Library of Science 2021-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8516218/ /pubmed/34648553 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258398 Text en © 2021 Norrström et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Norrström, Niclas
Niklasson, Mats
Leidenberger, Sonja
Winter weight loss of different subspecies of honey bee Apis mellifera colonies (Linnaeus, 1758) in southwestern Sweden
title Winter weight loss of different subspecies of honey bee Apis mellifera colonies (Linnaeus, 1758) in southwestern Sweden
title_full Winter weight loss of different subspecies of honey bee Apis mellifera colonies (Linnaeus, 1758) in southwestern Sweden
title_fullStr Winter weight loss of different subspecies of honey bee Apis mellifera colonies (Linnaeus, 1758) in southwestern Sweden
title_full_unstemmed Winter weight loss of different subspecies of honey bee Apis mellifera colonies (Linnaeus, 1758) in southwestern Sweden
title_short Winter weight loss of different subspecies of honey bee Apis mellifera colonies (Linnaeus, 1758) in southwestern Sweden
title_sort winter weight loss of different subspecies of honey bee apis mellifera colonies (linnaeus, 1758) in southwestern sweden
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8516218/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34648553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258398
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