<html>
<body>
Becher, M. A., J. L. Osborne, et al. (2013). "Towards a systems
approach for understanding honeybee decline: a stocktaking and synthesis
of existing models." <u>Journal of Applied Ecology</u> <b>50</b>(4):
868-880.<br>
<dl>
<dd><x-tab> </x-tab>* The
health of managed and wild honeybee colonies appears to have declined
substantially in Europe and the United States over the last decade.
Sustainability of honeybee colonies is important not only for honey
production, but also for pollination of crops and wild plants alongside
other insect pollinators. A combination of causal factors, including
parasites, pathogens, land use changes and pesticide usage, are cited as
responsible for the increased colony mortality. <br>
<dd>* However, despite detailed knowledge of the behaviour of honeybees
and their colonies, there are no suitable tools to explore the resilience
mechanisms of this complex system under stress. Empirically testing all
combinations of stressors in a systematic fashion is not feasible. We
therefore suggest a cross-level systems approach, based on mechanistic
modelling, to investigate the impacts of (and interactions between)
colony and land management. * We review existing honeybee models that are
relevant to examining the effects of different stressors on colony growth
and survival. Most of these models describe honeybee colony dynamics,
foraging behaviour or honeybee varroa mite virus interactions. <br>
<dd>* We found that many, but not all, processes within honeybee
colonies, epidemiology and foraging are well understood and described in
the models, but there is no model that couples in-hive dynamics and
pathology with foraging dynamics in realistic landscapes. <br>
<dd>* Synthesis and applications. We describe how a new integrated model
could be built to simulate multifactorial impacts on the honeybee colony
system, using building blocks from the reviewed models. The development
of such a tool would not only highlight empirical research priorities but
also provide an important forecasting tool for policy makers and
beekeepers, and we list examples of relevant applications to bee disease
and landscape management decisions.<br><br>
</dl></body>
</html>