[Pollinator] Researchers use bees to study airborne microplastics

[David Inouye]

    SCIENCE


  Researchers use bees to study airborne microplastics

Jacob Wallace <https://www.eenews.net/staff/Jacob_Wallace>, E&E News 
reporterPublished: Thursday, March 25, 2021


Researchers in Spain measured microplastics on European honeybees, which 
collect pollutants as they interact with the environment in their 
foraging range.CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons

A team of researchers based in Spain are attempting to measure the 
microplastics in the air by examining how many pieces are inadvertently 
collected by bees and stuck to their wings, legs and bodies.

In astudy 
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720380128>published 
in the journal/Science of the Total Environment/, researchers described 
working with the Danish Beekeepers Association to collect bees from 
urban, semirural and rural areas in and around Copenhagen. They then 
measured the amounts of microplastics found on the bees.

Roberto Rosal García, a researcher from the University of Alcalá in 
Spain who worked on the study, said bees can help researchers study the 
tiny fragments of plastic that float through the air and in the 
atmosphere, which are generally hard to measure.

The synthetic fibers the researchers found on the bees were thinner than 
a human hair. García said studying how those minuscule plastics spread 
can help scientists better understand how ubiquitous plastic really is 
in the environment around us.

"Plastic pollution has become a global concern, but as a relatively 
novel issue, there are important aspects poorly known," García said in 
an email.

Microplastics on bees. Photo credit: Rosal García Roberto

Microplastics were found in several parts of the bees' bodies.Rosal 
García Roberto

"The quantification of their origin and emissions; their environmental 
fate, mainly due to aging and fragmentation processes; and their effects 
to human health and to environmental organisms are important aspects 
that need research to be clarified," he added.

The amount of microplastics gathered by bees didn't change much 
depending on whether they were collected from a city or rural location 
in Denmark. Researchers said the relative similarity could be explained 
by a couple of factors: the long ranges of bees attached to rural or 
suburban hives that could take them into densely populated areas with 
more plastic, and wind carrying microplastics away from population centers.

García said the next step in this research will be to develop a way to 
monitor microplastics in beehives. Beehives are an ideal study subject 
because tens of thousands of female worker bees live in a single colony 
and their foraging range extends for several miles. Those bees bring 
environmental contaminants back to the hive, where they can be measured.

Researchers have alreadyestablished 
<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0243-0>that beehives can be 
used to track atmospheric pollutants like lead, zinc and copper.

Some of the researchers who participated in the study had previously 
developed a tool called APIStrip, which collects pesticides from 
beehives while minimally disturbing the bees. Atrial run 
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720324657>of 
the strips took place in nine countries in Europe last year.

Microplastics are near-ubiquitous on Earth and have been found in some 
of the most remote places on the planet. Researchers are increasingly 
exploring the health effects of the tiny plastic bits, which can break 
down so small that they may be able to accumulate in human tissue.

Areview <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7362455/>of such 
studies in 2020 found that there is still scant research on how humans 
are affected by microplastics — and even smaller nanoplastics — but 
acknowledged early research shows they may cause endocrine disruption, 
as well as carry other toxic effects.

García said his research is an important part of tracking down plastic 
pollution and uncovering any potential concerns for human health.

"Some people say that there is no reason to worry as we are not seeing 
anybody dying of plastic overdose, but it has to be recalled that it 
took almost 300 years to establish the negative consequences of tobacco 
and this topic has only been intensely researched for the last few 
years," García said.

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