Row crop fields provide mid-summer forage for honey bees

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dc.contributor.authorSilliman, Mary R.en
dc.contributor.authorSchuerch, Rogeren
dc.contributor.authorMalone, Seanen
dc.contributor.authorTaylor, Sally V.en
dc.contributor.authorCouvillon, Margaret J.en
dc.date.accessioned2022-11-03T19:32:01Zen
dc.date.available2022-11-03T19:32:01Zen
dc.date.issued2022-07en
dc.description.abstractHoney bees provide invaluable economic and ecological services while simultaneously facing stressors that may compromise their health. For example, agricultural landscapes, such as a row crop system, are necessary for our food production, but they may cause poor nutrition in bees from a lack of available nectar and pollen. Here, we investigated the foraging dynamics of honey bees in a row crop environment. We decoded, mapped, and analyzed 3459 waggle dances, which communicate the location of where bees collected food, for two full foraging seasons (April-October, 2018-2019). We found that bees recruited nestmates mostly locally (<2 km) throughout the season. The shortest communicated median distances (0.474 and 0.310 km), indicating abundant food availability, occurred in July in both years, which was when our row crops were in full bloom. We determined, by plotting and analyzing the communicated locations, that almost half of the mid-summer recruitment was to row crops, with 37% (2018) and 50% (2019) of honey bee dances indicating these fields. Peanut was the most attractive in July, followed by corn and cotton but not soybean. Overall, row crop fields are indicated by a surprisingly large proportion of recruitment dances, suggesting that similar agricultural landscapes may also provide mid-summer foraging opportunities for honey bees.en
dc.description.notesNational Institute of Food and Agriculture, Grant/Award Number: VA-160097; Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, Grant/Award Number: 549044en
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Institute of Food and Agriculture [VA-160097]; Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research [549044]en
dc.description.versionPublished versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8979en
dc.identifier.issn2045-7758en
dc.identifier.issue6en
dc.identifier.othere8979en
dc.identifier.pmid35784068en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/112373en
dc.identifier.volume12en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherWileyen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectApis melliferaen
dc.subjectforaging ecologyen
dc.subjectpeanut foragingen
dc.subjectrow cropsen
dc.subjectwaggle danceen
dc.titleRow crop fields provide mid-summer forage for honey beesen
dc.title.serialEcology and Evolutionen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten

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