Impact of land use intensification and local features on plants and pollinators in Sub-Saharan smallholder farms

Expanding involvement of the public in citizen science projects can benefit both volunteers and professional scientists alike. Recently, citizen science has come into focus as an important data source for reporting and monitoring United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since bees play an essential role in the pollination ecosystem service, citizen science projects involving them have a high potential for attaining SDGs. By performing a systematic review of citizen science studies on bees, we assessed how these studies could contribute towards SDG reporting and monitoring, and also verified compliance with citizen science principles. Eighty eight studies published from 1992 to 2020 were collected. SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 17 (Partnerships) were the most outstanding, potentially contributing to targets related to biodiversity protection, restoration and sustainable use, capacity building and establishing multi stakeholder partnerships. SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 4 (Quality Education), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) were also addressed. Studies were found to produce new knowledge, apply methods to improve data quality, and invest in open access publishing. Notably, volunteer participation was mainly restricted to data collection. Further challenges include extending these initiatives to developing countries, where only a few citizen science projects are underway.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/959/pdf

A Buzz for Sustainability and Conservation: The Growing Potential of Citizen Science Studies on Bees

Nowadays, land-use planning systems show structural weakness from an informative perspective, depending on the capacity to develop rapidly and accurately territorial knowledge as a decision support system (DSS). The capacity to effectively manage territorial transformations in a sustainability perspective is inadequate, especially under the pressure of rapid changes involving social, environmental, and economic dimensions. We recognize the Ecosystem Services (ES) approach as a robust framework to contribute to the renewal of the planning system by introducing spatially explicit knowledge of both actual environmental performances and the expected impacts related to land-use policies and territorial transformations. In this paper, we address the class of Regulation and Maintenance Ecosystem Services (ReMES) that has a relevant influence on the environment’s suitability to contribute to human well-being and to relate the local anthropic transformations to the larger scale where ES are provided and the impacts are tangible. The aim of this work is to propose a methodology to build a territorial knowledge infrastructure by mapping a relevant set of ReMES in Italy and identifying specialization subregions, to be intended as areas of high provision of one or more ReMES. The results, interpretable as a measure of territorial performances, represent a cross-cutting informative layer and a tool to support the comparison between different planning scenarios comprehensive of both environmental protection issues and socioeconomic development strategies. 

Mapping Regulation Ecosystem Services Specialization in Italy

European Apis mellifera and Asian Apis cerana honeybees are essential crop pollinators. Microbiome studies can provide complex information on health and fitness of these insects in relation to environmental changes, and plant availability. Amplicon sequencing of variable regions of the 16S rRNA from bacteria and the internally transcribed spacer (ITS) regions from fungi and plants allow identification of the metabiome. These methods provide a tool for monitoring otherwise uncultured microbes isolated from the gut of the honeybees. They also help monitor the composition of the gut fungi and, intriguingly, pollen collected by the insect. Here, we present data from amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA from bacteria and ITS2 regions from fungi and plants derived from honeybees collected at various time points from anthropogenic landscapes such as urban areas in Poland, UK, Spain, Greece, and Thailand. We have analysed microbial content of honeybee intestine as well as fungi and pollens. Furthermore, isolated DNA was used as the template for screening pathogens: Nosema apis, N. ceranae, N. bombi, tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi), any organism in the parasitic order Trypanosomatida, including Crithidia spp. (i.e., Crithidia mellificae), neogregarines including Mattesia and Apicystis spp. (i.e., Apicistis bombi). We conclude that differences between samples were mainly influenced by the bacteria, plant pollen and fungi, respectively. Moreover, honeybees feeding on a sugar based diet were more prone to fungal pathogens (Nosema ceranae) and neogregarines. In most samples Nosema sp. and neogregarines parasitized the host bee at the same time. A higher load of fungi, and bacteria groups such as Firmicutes (Lactobacillus); γ-proteobacteria, Neisseriaceae, and other unidentified bacteria was observed for Nosema ceranae and neogregarine infected honeybees. Healthy honeybees had a higher load of plant pollen, and bacteria groups such as: Orbales, Gilliamella, Snodgrassella, and Enterobacteriaceae. Finally, the period when honeybees switch to the winter generation (longer-lived forager honeybees) is the most sensitive to diet perturbations, and hence pathogen attack, for the whole beekeeping season. It is possible that evolutionary adaptation of bees fails to benefit them in the modern anthropomorphised environment.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/10/3/381/pdf

Amplicon Sequencing of Variable 16S rRNA from Bacteria and ITS2 Regions from Fungi and Plants, Reveals Honeybee Susceptibility to Diseases Results from Their Forage Availability under Anthropogenic Landscapes.

Biodiversity strengthens the productivity of any ecosystem (agricultural land, forest, lake, etc.). The loss of biodiversity contributes to food and energy insecurity; increases vulnerability to natural disasters, such as floods or tropical storms; and decreases the quality of both life and health. Wild and managed bees play a key role in maintaining the biodiversity and in the recovery and restoration of degraded habitats. The novelty character of this perspective is to give an updated representation of bee products’ biodiversity, sustainability, and health relationship. The role of bees as bioindicators, their importance in the conservation of biodiversity, their ecosystem services, and the variety of the bee products are described herein. An overview of the main components of bee products, their biological potentials, and health is highlighted and detailed as follows: (i) nutritional value of bee products, (ii) bioactive profile of bee products and the related beneficial properties; (iii) focus on honey and health through a literature quantitative analysis, and (iv) bee products explored through databases. Moreover, as an example of the interconnection between health, biodiversity, and sustainability, a case study, namely the “Cellulose Park”, realized in Rome (Italy), is presented here. This case study highlights how bee activities can be used to assess and track changes in the quality of agricultural ecosystems—hive products could be valid indicators of the quality and health of the surrounding environment, as well as the changes induced by the biotic and abiotic factors that impact the sustainability of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation in peri-urban areas.

https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/74258/1/document_54656_1.pdf

Bee Products: A Representation of Biodiversity, Sustainability, and Health

Reductions in global bee populations are threatening the pollination benefits to both the planet and people. Whilst the contribution of bee pollination in promoting sustainable development goals through food security and biodiversity is widely acknowledged, a range of other benefits provided by bees has yet to be fully recognised. We explore the contributions of bees towards achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our insights suggest that bees potentially contribute towards 15 of the 17 SDGs and a minimum of 30 SDG targets. We identify common themes in which bees play an essential role, and suggest that improved understanding of bee contributions to sustainable development is crucial for ensuring viable bee systems.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs13280-020-01333-9.pdf

Liz Barbour

Papers

Why bees are critical for achieving sustainable development.