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Insects
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Advances in the Use of Hymenoptera as Bioindicators in Agricultural...
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Advances in the Use of Hymenoptera as Bioindicators in Agricultural Landscapes

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Pest and Vector Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 7863

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Frank M. J. Sommerlandt

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Thünen Institute of Biodiversity, Braunschweig, Germany
Interests: bumblebees; agroecology; pollination services
Prof. Dr. Marika Mänd

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, F. R. Kreutzwaldi 1, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
Interests: agroecology; pollinator assemblages; bumble bee ecology; crop pollination services
Dr. Wiebke Sickel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Thünen Institute of Biodiversity, Braunschweig, Germany
Interests: biodiversity; DNA metabarcoding; environmental DNA; genetic diversity; monitoring; non-lethal sampling; wild bees
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to a Special Issue on the latest advances in the use of Hymenoptera as bioindicators in agricultural landscapes.

In recent years, a global decline in terrestrial biodiversity has been reported by an increasing number of studies. Among other factors, such as climate change, this has been largely attributed to land-use intensification. To evaluate the state of ecosystems and the effectiveness of measures that aim to support biodiversity, reliable (bio-)indicators are required.

Hymenoptera are promising bioindicators for the state of terrestrial ecosystems, as they are mobile, have short generation times, and are sensitive to habitat fragmentation and environmental changes. Moreover, they fulfill important ecosystem services such as pollination and biological pest control and collect and provide valuable information about the environment. For example, collected pollen can bear information about the availability of floral resources and pesticide residues in the landscape, and the incidence of parasitoid Hymenoptera correlates with overall arthropod richness due to trophic interactions. Innovative approaches, such as recent advances in molecular biology tools or technical devices for automatic species recognition, combined with landscape assessments based on remote sensing, are opening new opportunities to use Hymenoptera as sources of information on the state of the environment.

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive collection of the latest developments in the field. Invited are all kinds of contributions, such as original, theoretical, empirical, or applied research articles, reviews, quantitative meta-analyses, or perspective articles that focus on the potential use of Hymenoptera (managed and wild bees, (parasitoid) wasps and ants) or their products (e.g., honey or pollen) as bioindicators to reflect the state of and threats to biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.

Dr. Frank M. J. Sommerlandt
Prof. Dr. Marika Mänd
Dr. Wiebke Sickel
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • hymenoptera
  • farmland biodiversity
  • indicators
  • habitat quality
  • agriculture
  • land use
  • land cover
  • bees
  • wasps
  • ants

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 14914 KiB  
Article
Artificial Nesting Hills Promote Wild Bees in Agricultural Landscapes
by Ulrich Neumüller, Hannah Burger, Antonia V. Mayr, Sebastian Hopfenmüller, Sabrina Krausch, Nadine Herwig, Ronald Burger, Olaf Diestelhorst, Katrin Emmerich, Mare Haider, Manuel Kiefer, Jonas Konicek, Johann-Christoph Kornmilch, Marina Moser, Christoph Saure, Arno Schanowski, Erwin Scheuchl, Julia Sing, Max Wagner, Julia Witter, Hans R. Schwenninger and Manfred Ayasseadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Insects 2022, 13(8), 726; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13080726 - 14 Aug 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3935
Abstract
The availability of nesting resources influences the persistence and survival of bee communities. Although a positive effect of artificial nesting structures has frequently been shown for aboveground cavity-nesting wild bees, studies on below ground-nesting bees are rare. Artificial nesting hills designed to provide [...] Read more.
The availability of nesting resources influences the persistence and survival of bee communities. Although a positive effect of artificial nesting structures has frequently been shown for aboveground cavity-nesting wild bees, studies on below ground-nesting bees are rare. Artificial nesting hills designed to provide nesting habitats for ground-nesting bees were therefore established within the BienABest project in 20 regions across Germany. Wild bee communities were monitored for two consecutive years, accompanied by recordings of landscape and abiotic nest site variables. Bee activity and species richness increased from the first to the second year after establishment; this was particularly pronounced in landscapes with a low cover of semi-natural habitat. The nesting hills were successively colonized, indicating that they should exist for many years, thereby promoting a species-rich bee community. We recommend the construction of nesting hills on sun-exposed sites with a high thermal gain of the substrate because the bees prefer south-facing sites with high soil temperatures. Although the soil composition of the nesting hills plays a minor role, we suggest using local soil to match the needs of the local bee community. We conclude that artificial nesting structures for ground-nesting bees act as a valuable nesting resource for various bee species, particularly in highly degraded landscapes. We offer a construction and maintenance guide for the successful establishment of nesting hills for bee conservation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Use of Hymenoptera as Bioindicators in Agricultural Landscapes)
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10 pages, 832 KiB  
Article
Land Use Influences the Composition and Antimicrobial Effects of Propolis
by Amara J. Orth, Emma H. Curran, Eric J. Haas, Andrew C. Kraemer, Audrey M. Anderson, Nicholas J. Mason and Carol A. Fassbinder-Orth
Insects 2022, 13(3), 239; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13030239 - 28 Feb 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2590
Abstract
Honey bee propolis is a complex, resinous mixture created by bees using plant sources such as leaves, flowers, and bud exudates. This study characterized how cropland surrounding apiaries affects the chemical composition and antimicrobial effects of propolis. The chemical composition and compound abundance [...] Read more.
Honey bee propolis is a complex, resinous mixture created by bees using plant sources such as leaves, flowers, and bud exudates. This study characterized how cropland surrounding apiaries affects the chemical composition and antimicrobial effects of propolis. The chemical composition and compound abundance of the propolis samples were analyzed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and the antimicrobial effects were analyzed using the 50% minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC50) assay against four relevant bee pathogens, Serratia marcescens, Paenibacillus larvae, Lysinibacillus sphaericus, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Propolis composition varied significantly with apiary, and cropland coverage predicted mean sum abundance of compounds. The apiary with the highest cropland coverage exhibited significantly higher MIC50 values for S. marcescens and K. pneumoniae compared to other apiaries. These results demonstrate that agricultural land use surrounding honey bee apiaries decreases the chemical quality and antimicrobial effects of propolis, which may have implications for the impacts of land use on hive immunity to potential pathogens. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Use of Hymenoptera as Bioindicators in Agricultural Landscapes)
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