We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Honeybees as active samplers for microplastics
AI summary Read the abstract
Honeybee workers collected from urban, suburban, and rural Copenhagen apiaries all carried microplastics, predominantly fragments (52%) and fibers (38%), with urban hives showing the highest loads — establishing honeybees as practical active samplers for environmental microplastic monitoring.
Microplastics are ubiquitous and their sampling is a difficult task. Honeybees interact with the environment inside their foraging range and take pollutants with them. In this work, we demonstrated for the first time that worker bees can act as active samplers of microplastics. We collected honeybees from apiaries located in the centre of Copenhagen and from nearby semiurban and rural areas. We showed the presence of microplastics in all sampled locations mostly in the form of fragments (52%) and fibres (38%) with average equivalent diameter of 64 ± 39 μm for fibres and 234 ± 156 μm for fragments. The highest load corresponded to urban apiaries, but comparable number of microplastics was found in hives from suburban and rural areas, which can be explained by the presence of urban settlements inside the foraging range of worker bees and to the easy dispersion of small microplastics by wind. Micro-FTIR analysis confirmed the presence of thirteen synthetic polymers, the most frequently of which was polyester followed by polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride. Our results demonstrated the presence of microplastics attached to the body of the honeybees and opens a new research pathway to their use as active biosamplers for anthropogenic pollution.
More Papers Like This
Evaluation of microplastic pollution using bee colonies: An exploration of various sampling methodologies
AI summary Read the abstract
This study evaluated honeybees, pollen, and a novel in-hive passive sampler called the APITrap as biological and passive monitors for microplastic pollution, finding that honeybees and pollen effectively captured particles from the surrounding environment.
Influence of Geographic Separation Between Urban Centers and Microplastic Burden on Bees (Apis mellifera)
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers studied whether the distance between honeybee colonies and urban centers affects the amount of microplastic contamination found on the bees. They found that bees closer to cities carried significantly more microplastics on their bodies than those in more rural areas. The study suggests that honeybees could serve as biological indicators for monitoring local microplastic pollution levels.
Microplastic contamination in the agri-food chain: The case of honeybees and beehive products
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers investigated microplastic and microfiber contamination in honeybees and beehive products across urban and rural areas in Southern Italy. They confirmed that microplastics were present on bee bodies and in honey, wax, and propolis regardless of the surrounding environment, indicating widespread airborne contamination. The findings suggest that honeybees and their products could serve as bioindicators for monitoring microplastic pollution in the atmosphere.
Honeybees as sentinels of microplastic pollution: a meta-analysis of accumulation, toxicity, and biomonitoring potential
AI summary Read the abstract
This review pulled together findings from 139 studies showing that honeybees pick up microplastics (tiny plastic bits) from the environment, and these particles can end up in honey, pollen, and wax, products many people eat or use daily. Because bees fly over large areas and are sensitive to pollution, scientists suggest using them as living "pollution detectors" to track microplastic contamination in the environment, which could also signal risks to the food we eat and the crops bees pollinate. More research is still needed to understand exactly how harmful long-term microplastic exposure is to bees and, by extension, to us.
Bumblebee exposure to microplastics in urban, agricultural and forest environments
AI summary Read the abstract
Bumblebees in Estonian urban areas carried significantly higher microplastic loads on their body surfaces than those in agricultural or forest environments, with the highest contamination near busy highways, establishing baseline data for terrestrial microplastic monitoring. This research demonstrates that bumblebees can serve as effective bioindicators for airborne and surface microplastic pollution in terrestrial ecosystems.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.