Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Biotic and abiotic stresses on honeybee health

This review covers the many threats facing honeybee health, including parasites, pesticides, habitat loss, climate change, and emerging pollutants like microplastics. Microplastics have been found in bee habitats and can be ingested during foraging, potentially affecting bee health and colony survival. Since honeybees are essential crop pollinators, threats to their health from microplastic pollution could indirectly impact human food production.

2023 Integrative Zoology 33 citations
Article Tier 2

The Role of Beekeeping in the Generation of Goods and Services: The Interrelation between Environmental, Socioeconomic, and Sociocultural Utilities

This review examines the diverse ecosystem goods and services generated by beekeeping, including pollination, honey production, and cultural benefits, while documenting growing threats to bee populations from pesticides, habitat loss, and emerging pathogens. The authors argue that beekeeping supports biodiversity and food security in ways that are systematically undervalued in economic and environmental assessments.

2022 Agriculture 69 citations
Article Tier 2

Microbiota and Its Importance in Honey Bees

This review examines the role of microbiota in honey bee health, finding that gut microbiome composition is critical for metabolism, immune function, and protection against pathogens, with environmental stressors including pollution threatening bee microbiome stability.

2021 Bee Studies- Apiculture Research Institute 7 citations
Article Tier 2

The Honey Bee Apis mellifera: An Insect at the Interface between Human and Ecosystem Health

This review provides an updated overview of the many ways honey bees benefit both human societies and natural ecosystems, from pollinating crops and wild plants to producing honey and serving as environmental monitors. Researchers highlight the bee's role as a bioindicator species that can reveal pollution levels, including microplastic contamination, in the environment. The study underscores how threats to honey bee health, including exposure to environmental pollutants, can have cascading effects on food security and biodiversity.

2022 Biology 150 citations
Article Tier 2

Developing Strategies to Help Bee Colony Resilience in Changing Environments

This review identified strategies for improving bee colony resilience under multiple stressors including climate change, pathogen pressure, and pesticide exposure, with a focus on the links between nutrition, gut microbiota, and immune and stress response systems. The authors highlight dietary diversity and microbiome support as practical levers for maintaining colony health.

2022 Animals 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging threats and opportunities to managed bee species in European agricultural systems: a horizon scan

Researchers and European experts identified 21 emerging threats and opportunities for managed bees used in agriculture, spanning pesticide exposure, climate stress, new parasites, and trade policies, highlighting that protecting pollination services requires coordinated action across local, national, and continental scales.

2023 Scientific Reports 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Are Honey Bees at Risk from Microplastics?

This review examines whether microplastics pose a risk to honey bee populations, noting that microplastics have been detected in honey samples and on bees collected from both urban and rural areas. Researchers found that exposure to certain polymer types may affect bee health, and the study calls for more research to understand the risks of microplastic exposure to pollinators and the broader implications for ecosystem health.

2021 Toxics 62 citations
Article Tier 2

Case Studies on Environmental Stressors in India: Microplastics in Marine Life and Pesticides Affecting Bees

This paper presents case studies on two urgent ecological challenges in India: microplastic ingestion by marine organisms along India's coastline and neonicotinoid pesticide effects on bee populations, examining how both threats affect biodiversity and human food security.

2025 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Case Studies on Environmental Stressors in India: Microplastics in Marine Life and Pesticides Affecting Bees

This paper presents case studies on two urgent ecological challenges in India: microplastic ingestion by marine organisms along India's coastline and neonicotinoid pesticide effects on bee populations, examining how both threats affect biodiversity and human food security.

2025 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Agroecological Strategies to Safeguard Insect Pollinators in Biodiversity Hotspots: Chile as a Case Study

This review examined how industrial agriculture threatens native pollinators in Chile — a global biodiversity hotspot — and evaluated agroecological management strategies including native plant corridors, reduced pesticide use, and diversified cropping systems as conservation measures.

2021 Sustainability 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Climate change, air pollution, and risks to honeybees – a review of biomonitoring data

Not relevant to microplastics — this review synthesizes global biomonitoring data on honeybee exposure to metals, PAHs, pesticides, and other environmental pollutants, assessing bees as sentinel species for ecosystem health under climate change.

2023 Global NEST International Conference on Environmental Science & Technology
Article Tier 2

Underexplored food safety hazards of beekeeping products: Key knowledge gaps and suggestions for future research

This review examines underexplored food safety risks in bee products like honey, royal jelly, and propolis, including contamination from microplastics and other environmental pollutants. Bees can pick up microplastics from the environment during foraging, transferring them into hive products that humans consume. The authors highlight that while pesticides and heavy metals in honey are well studied, microplastic contamination in beekeeping products needs more attention.

2024 Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 10 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Microplastics comprehensive review: Impact on honey bee, occurrence in honey and health risk evaluation

This systematic review examines how microplastics contaminate honey through bees and their environment. The findings show that bees accumulate microplastics from polluted air, water, and soil, which can then end up in honey — a product many people consume for its health benefits.

2025 Journal of Applied Ecology 10 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

A systematic review of honey bee (Apis mellifera, Linnaeus, 1758) infections and available treatment options

This systematic review catalogued the major pathogens threatening honey bee colonies worldwide, including Varroa mites, Nosema fungi, and several viruses, along with current treatment options. The authors call for a global monitoring system to track parasite prevalence and protect pollinator health.

2023 Veterinary Medicine and Science 19 citations
Article Tier 2

Pollination under attack: First insights from Türkiye Plain reveal microplastics in bees from both urban and rural areas

Researchers found microplastics inside honeybees from both urban and rural areas in Turkey, with urban bees carrying significantly higher concentrations — mostly PET plastic fibers — raising concern that microplastic contamination could threaten pollinator health and the agricultural pollination services bees provide.

2025 Ecological Indicators 5 citations
Article Tier 2

How Environmental and Ecological Stressors Reprogram Honey Bee Chemistry Through the Microbiome–Metabolome Axis

Researchers reviewed how major environmental stressors — including pesticides, pathogens, nutritional imbalance, and contaminants — disrupt the honey bee gut microbiome-metabolome axis, finding recurring patterns of functional dysbiosis such as impaired energy metabolism and weakened immune regulation that can scale up to threaten colony resilience.

2026 Insects
Article Tier 2

Exploring the risk of microplastics to pollinators: focusing on honey bees

This review summarizes research on how microplastics affect honey bees, which pollinate about 70% of the food we eat. Microplastics have been found in honey, pollen, beeswax, and bee tissues including the brain and gut, where they can impair behavior, immunity, and gut bacteria. Declining bee populations threaten food production, and microplastic pollution may be one contributing factor.

2024 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Nanoplastics Effects on Plant–Pollinator Interaction and Pollination Biology

This review examines how microplastics and nanoplastics affect the relationship between plants and their pollinators, including bees and other insects. The particles can harm pollinator health, alter plant reproduction, and disrupt the chemical signals that attract pollinators to flowers. Since pollination is essential for food production, microplastic interference with this process could have far-reaching consequences for agriculture and ecosystems.

2023 Environmental Science & Technology 35 citations
Article Tier 2

Pesticides, Herbicides and Their Effects on Pollinators

This review examined how pesticide exposure—particularly neonicotinoids—harms pollinators through direct contact, ingestion, and bioaccumulation, finding that chronic low-level exposure impairs foraging, navigation, immune function, and reproduction in bees and other pollinators.

2025 International Journal on Environmental Sciences
Article Tier 2

Dancing with danger-how honeybees are getting affected in the web of microplastics-a review

This review summarizes research on how microplastics are affecting honeybees, finding that these particles accumulate in bee tissues including the brain, gut, and breathing tubes. Microplastic exposure can change bee behavior, weaken their immune systems, reduce body weight, and disrupt gut bacteria. Since honeybees pollinate roughly 70% of the food crops humans eat, threats to bee health from microplastics could have far-reaching effects on food security.

2024 NanoImpact 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Sources of Possible Associated Pathogens and Contaminants of Stingless Bees in the Neotropics

This review examines the environmental pathogens and contaminants—including microplastics, pesticides, and parasites—that threaten stingless bee health in the Neotropics. The authors find that stingless bees are understudied compared to honeybees despite their critical ecological and economic role, and that microplastic exposure represents an emerging threat not yet well characterized.

2025 Insects
Article Tier 2

Characterization of Microplastics in Bees and Their Products in Urban and Rural Areas of the Sabana De Bogotá, Colombia

Researchers characterized microplastics in honey bees and their products (honey, wax, propolis) from both urban and rural areas of the Sabana de Bogota, Colombia. Microplastics were found across all matrices and bee types, with urban bees showing higher contamination levels, raising concerns about both pollinator health and honey safety.

2024 Microplastics 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Roadside habitat: Boon or bane for pollinating insects?

This review examines whether roadside habitats serve as beneficial or harmful environments for pollinating insects. While roadsides can provide floral resources for declining pollinator populations, they also expose insects to vehicle collisions, toxic pollutants, mowing, and herbicides. The study recommends that managers and policymakers carefully weigh these costs and benefits when planning pollinator-focused roadside habitat management.

2024 BioScience 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluation of Climatic and Anthropogenic Impactson Phytosociological Aspects and ConservationStatus of Native Flora in One of Protected andUnprotected Habitats of Cholistan Desert, Pakistan

Researchers evaluated the long-term effects of anthropogenic activities, climate variability, edaphic conditions, and seasonal variations on the floristic and ecological status of protected and unprotected habitats in the Cholistan Desert, Pakistan. The study found that protected biodiversity reserve sites maintained greater plant species richness and conservation status compared to unprotected areas exposed to grazing and human disturbance.

2024 Polish Journal of Environmental Studies