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25 June 2019 Assessment of Pollen Diversity Available to Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Major Cropping Systems During Pollination in the Western United States
Ellen Topitzhofer, Hannah Lucas, Priyadarshini Chakrabarti, Carolyn Breece, Vaughn Bryant, Ramesh R. Sagili
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Abstract

Global western honey bee, Apis mellifera (L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae), colony declines pose a significant threat to food production worldwide. Poor nutrition resulting from habitat loss, extensive monocultures, and agricultural intensification is among the several suggested drivers for colony declines. Pollen is the primary source of protein for honey bees; therefore, both pollen abundance and diversity are critical for colony growth and survival. Many cropping systems that employ honey bee colonies for pollination may lack sufficient pollen diversity and abundance to provide optimal bee nutrition. In this observational study, we documented the diversity and relative abundance of pollen collected by honey bees in five major pollinator-dependent crops in the western United States. We sampled pollen from pollen traps installed on honey bee colonies in the following cropping systems—almond, cherry, highbush blueberry, hybrid carrot, and meadowfoam. The pollen diversity was estimated by documenting the number of different pollen pellet colors and plant taxa found in each pollen sample. The lowest pollen diversity was found in almond crop. Relatively higher quantities of pollen collection were collected in almond, cherry, and meadowfoam cropping systems. The information gleaned from this study regarding pollen diversity and abundance may help growers, land managers, and beekeepers improve pollen forage available to bees in these cropping systems.

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
Ellen Topitzhofer, Hannah Lucas, Priyadarshini Chakrabarti, Carolyn Breece, Vaughn Bryant, and Ramesh R. Sagili "Assessment of Pollen Diversity Available to Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Major Cropping Systems During Pollination in the Western United States," Journal of Economic Entomology 112(5), 2040-2048, (25 June 2019). https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toz168
Received: 27 December 2018; Accepted: 28 May 2019; Published: 25 June 2019
KEYWORDS
crop pollination
honey bees
pollen abundance
pollen diversity
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