Understanding the impacts of the consumption of wildfire smoke contaminated pollen on honey bee health

Commodities

• Animals: bees

Practices

• Animal Production: animal protection and health
• Crop Production: beekeeping, pollinator habitat, pollinator health
• Education and Training: decision support system, extension

Climate change has become a growing concern among farmers and beekeepers as natural disasters, such as wildfires and flooding, become more frequent and severe (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2022; Liu et al., 2022; Van Espen et al., 2023). In Oregon, record-breaking wildfires have occurred in recent years. Not only do these fires generate smoke that significantly worsens air quality, they also harm the ecosystem, reduce wildlife habitat, and threaten food security by damaging crops and disrupting plant-pollinator interactions. Repeated severe fire events negatively affect pollinators in directly lethal ways—when they perish in the fire—and via sublethal routes such as impacting their communication, mobility, or diets (Carbone et al., 2019; Melathopoulos, 2020). Honey bees are important pollinators of multiple agricultural crops, including almonds, blueberries, carrots, and cherries. When colonies are kept in areas where frequent or severe wildfires occur, the resulting poor air quality becomes a detriment to honey bee health on both an individual and colony level (Khalifa et al., 2021; Zapata-Hernández et al., 2024). Some studies have accounted for the effect of air pollution on honey bee communication and behavior, but there is a lack of information regarding the effects of smoke pollution on pollen and consumption of smoke-contaminated pollen on honey bee health. Here we propose to evaluate the impact of smoke-contaminated pollen consumption on honey bee health by conducting a cage study in the laboratory and a field study using honey bee colonies from a collaborating beekeeper.

• Research Objectives

RO1. Evaluate the impact of smoke contaminated pollen consumption on honey bee diet preference by addressing pollen and syrup ingestion and qualitative measurement of smoke particulates presence in adult bees in (a) a laboratory cage study and (b) a field study.

RO2. Determine the effect of consumption of smoke-contaminated pollen on honey bee health, by tracking mortality, measuring the presence of particulate matter (PM2.5) in adult and larval honey bee tissue, and quantifying total head protein, vitellogenin and reactive oxygen species in adult bees in (a) a laboratory cage study and (b) a field study.

• Educational Objectives

EO1. Disseminate project findings to stakeholders (beekeepers and farmers) in (a) English and (b) Spanish regarding the indirect impacts of wildfires in Oregon through air quality reduction by smoke on honey bee diet consumption and honey bee health to support decision-making via field days, presentations, and educational factsheets.