Local habitat type influences bumble bee pathogen loads and bee species distributions

Elena M. Gratton, Darin J. McNeil, Christina M. Grozinger, Heather M. Hines

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Bombus Latreille) perform important ecological services in both managed and natural ecosystems. Anthropogenically induced change has altered floral resources, climate, and insecticide exposure, factors that impact health and disease levels in these bees. Habitat management presents a solution for improving bee health and biodiversity, but this requires better understanding of how different pathogens and bee species respond to habitat conditions. We take advantage of the washboard of repeated ridges (forested) and valleys (mostly developed) in central Pennsylvania to examine whether local variation in habitat type and other landscape factors influence bumble bee community composition and levels of 4 leading pathogens in the common eastern bumble bee, Bombus impatiens Cresson. Loads of viruses (DWV and BQCV) were found to be lowest in forest habitats, whereas loads of a gut parasite, Crithidia bombi, were highest in forests. Ridgetop forests hosted the most diverse bumble bee communities, including several habitat specialists. B. impatiens was most abundant in valleys, and showed higher incidence in areas of greater disturbance, including more developed, unforested, and lower floral resource sites, a pattern which mirrors its success in the face of anthropogenic change. Additionally, DNA barcoding revealed that B. sandersoni is much more common than is apparent from databases. Our results provide evidence that habitat type can play a large role in pathogen load dynamics, but in ways that differ by pathogen type, and point to a need for consideration of habitat at both macro-ecological and local spatial scales.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)491-501
Number of pages11
JournalEnvironmental Entomology
Volume52
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved.

Funding

We would like to thank Andy Deans and Codey Mathis for their assistance in the field. We would like to thank Gabriela Quinlan for assistance in obtaining data on geospatial variables and with the statistical analysis. We are also grateful to Allyson Ray for assistance with qPCR. We recognize and are grateful for the considerable efforts of taxonomic experts to identify and database species that populate GBIF and iNaturalist. We are grateful to Jack Hill and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (PA-DCNR) for access to state parks for bumble bee sampling (permit #2019-75). This work was supported by a grant to HMH and CMG from the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR #549032), and by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Hatch Appropriations under Project #PEN04716 and Accession #1020527.

FundersFunder number
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources2019-75
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative04716, 1020527
US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative
Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research549032
Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research

    Keywords

    • Bombus
    • bumble bee
    • habitat
    • pathogen
    • pollinator

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Medicine

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