[Pollinator] Anthropogenic influences on bee foraging

[David Inouye]

Goulson, D. and E. Nicholls (2022). "Anthropogenic influences on bee 
foraging." Science 375(6584): 970-972.
     Efficient foraging is vital to bee fitness but is challenging in 
the Anthropocene Bees are highly specialized insects, feeding almost 
exclusively on nectar and pollen from flowers, and in so doing 
contributing substantially to the pollination of wild plants and crops. 
Flying to and from patches of flowers is energetically costly, 
particularly for relatively large bees such as honey bees and bumble 
bees that live on a knife-edge in terms of balancing their energy 
intake. Suboptimal foraging conditions can result in a net loss of 
energy over the course of a foraging trip. Bees have evolved numerous 
adaptations to efficiently locate and extract floral resources, 
including impressive learning, navigational, and communication 
abilities. These are key to their survival and successful reproduction, 
because the number of offspring that can be provisioned is determined by 
the food surplus adult bees can gather. However, these foraging 
adaptations can be affected by anthropogenic factors, but there are 
opportunities to minimize negative effects.

If you can't access the paper and want a copy I can send one.

David

-- 
Dr. David W. Inouye
Professor Emeritus
Department of Biology
University of Maryland

Principal Investigator
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory