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Author ORCID Identifier
Publication Date
2022
Keywords
agroecosystem, Bombus impatiens, Crithidia bombi, Helianthus annuus, pollinator health, sunflower
Disciplines
Agriculture | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Entomology
Description
We evaluated whether plantings of sunflower (Helianthus annuus), whose pollen reduces infection by some pathogens when fed to bees in captivity, lowered pathogen levels and increased reproduction in free-foraging bumble bee colonies (Bombus impatiens). We placed pairs of commercial colonies of B. impatiens at 20 mixed vegetable farms in western Massachusetts between Jul-23 and Oct-6 2019. Flowering resources typically visited by bumble bees were quantified at each farm twice to characterize abundance and diversity. We also visited each farm 3-4 times and at each visit, we (a) recorded colony weights to track growth, (b) collected ~10 corbicular loads from returning foragers (per site) to assess usage of sunflower and other Asteraceae, and (c) collected 10 returning foraging workers from each colony entrance for later pathogen analysis. Visual assessment of pathogen samples and pollen composition occurred at UMass Amherst during the 2019-20 academic year. Molecular assessment of pathogen samples occurred at UC Riverside. An associated manuscript with this title and these authors is being submitted for publication.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/x9pj-g047
Grant/Award Number and Agency
USDA-NIFA-2016-07962
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Malfi, Rosemary L.; McFrederick, Quinn S.; Lozano, Giselle; Irwin, Rebecca E.; and Adler, Lynn S., "Sunflower plantings reduce a common gut pathogen and increase queen production in bumble bee colonies" (2022). Data and Datasets. 150.
https://doi.org/10.7275/x9pj-g047
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/data/150
Comments
Readme included in zip file.