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Video Q&A ViewAttendees 3

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Undergrad P-IE: Pollinators and Ecology On-Demand Presentations

Honey bees as environmental biomonitors of pathogens and contaminants

On-Demand
Student Competition On-Demand

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Morgan M. Cunningham

    Student
    University of Victoria
    Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

    • Co-Author(s)

  • CM

    Chloe McKee

    Student
    University of Victoria
    Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

  • LT

    Lan Tran

    Post-doctoral Researcher
    Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
    Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

  • TN

    Tara Newman

    Student
    Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
    Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

  • GB

    Guillaume J. Bilodeau

    Research Scientist
    Canada Food Inspection Agency
    Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

  • MR

    Michael E. Rott

    Scientist
    Canadian Food Inspection Agency
    Sannich, British Columbia, Canada

  • JG

    Jonathan S. Griffiths

    Research Scientist
    Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
    Vineland, Ontario, Canada

  • DG

    Daniel W. Gladish

    Student Bioinformatics Scientist
    Canadian Food Inspection Agency
    Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

  • AL

    Andrea K. Lofano

    Research Technician
    Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
    Vineland, Ontario, Canada

  • MG

    Marta Guarna

    Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
    Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

The European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) has received significant attention in recent years for its role in environmental biomonitoring; a method that utilizes living organisms to assess environment health. Honey bees are globally managed pollinators that can be exposed to contaminants and pathogens during foraging; carrying them to the hive where they can be detected and quantified in hive materials: honey, stored pollen, and wax. Although individual bees are vulnerable to contaminants, the honey bee colony is resilient and can accumulate stressors without collapsing. This allows for long term monitoring and the potential to create spatio-temporal gradients of environmental contamination. Here we discuss demonstrated and proposed uses of honey bees as biomonitors of environmental contaminants, pathogens, and climate variations in the recent literature. We also present recent results from our laboratories on the detection of plant and bee pathogens in bees and bee-collected pollen. High-throughput methodologies such as next generation sequencing can reveal the presence of plant viruses, fungi, bacteria, and potential invasive plant species earlier than with traditional detection methods. In addition, gene expression studies have been used to identify dose dependent exposures to environmental stressors, as well as extreme temperature events indicative of a changing climate. In our discussion, we will attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of honey bees as biomonitors for a range of stressors and their potential use in environmental monitoring programs; crucial for protecting human, agriculture, and overall ecosystem health.