title: Migratory management and environmental conditions affect lifespan and oxidative stress in honey bees.
abstract: Most pollination in large-scale agriculture is dependent on managed colonies of a single species, the honey bee Apis mellifera. More than 1 million hives are transported to California each year just to pollinate the almonds, and bees are trucked across the country for various cropping systems. Concerns have been raised about whether such "migratory management" causes bees undue stress; however to date there have been no longer-term studies rigorously addressing whether migratory management is detrimental to bee health. To address this issue, we conducted field experiments comparing bees from commercial and experimental migratory beekeeping operations to those from stationary colonies to quantify effects on lifespan, colony health and productivity, and levels of oxidative damage for individual bees. We detected a significant decrease in lifespan of migratory adult bees relative to stationary bees. We also found that migration affected oxidative stress levels in honey bees, but that food scarcity had an even larger impact; some detrimental effects of migration may be alleviated by a greater abundance of forage. In addition, rearing conditions affect levels of oxidative damage incurred as adults. This is the first comprehensive study on impacts of migratory management on the health and oxidative stress of honey bees.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simone-Finstrom
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.|The W.M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.|Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li-Byarlay
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Ming H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Life Sciences Division, U.S. Army Research Office, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Micheline K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Strand
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Olav
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rueppell
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.|The W.M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Tarpy
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology*; D002140:California; D008281:Maine; D008315:Malondialdehyde / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D009657:North Carolina; D018384:Oxidative Stress
chemical_list: D008315:Malondialdehyde