Papers

61,005 results
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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

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 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

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 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

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
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
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
Article Tier 2

Current Knowledge on Bee Innate Immunity Based on Genomics and Transcriptomics

This review synthesized genomic and transcriptomic studies on innate immunity in bees, covering defense mechanisms against pathogens including viruses, bacteria, and parasites. The authors identified key immune genes and signaling pathways across solitary and social bee species, with implications for understanding colony health and designing interventions against bee population decline.

2022 International Journal of Molecular Sciences 9 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Bees and Microplastic Studies: A Systematic Review

This systematic review of 33 studies found that microplastic research involving bees is still in its early stages, with evidence suggesting microplastics can alter bee gut microbiota and impair immune function. Given that compromised bee health threatens pollination services and broader ecosystem stability, the review calls for more primary studies on this understudied topic.

2025 Neotropical Entomology 2 citations
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

Single and Synergistic Effects of Microplastics and Difenoconazole on Oxidative Stress, Transcriptome, and Microbiome Traits in Honey Bees

Researchers exposed honey bees to microplastics and the fungicide difenoconazole, both alone and together, and found that the combination caused worse oxidative stress and gut microbiome disruption than either pollutant alone. This is concerning because bees encounter both pollutants in agricultural environments, and the combined exposure may weaken their health more than expected.

2025 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Gut microbiota protects honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) against polystyrene microplastics exposure risks

Researchers found that honey bees with intact gut microbiota were significantly more resilient to polystyrene microplastic exposure than bees with disrupted gut communities. The gut microbiota helped reduce oxidative stress and maintained immune function in bees exposed to microplastics. The study suggests that a healthy gut microbiome may serve as a natural defense mechanism against the harmful effects of microplastic ingestion in pollinators.

2020 Journal of Hazardous Materials 203 citations
Article Tier 2

Gut microbiota analysis of the western honeybee ( Apis mellifera L.) infested with the mite Varroa destructor reveals altered bacterial and archaeal community

Researchers used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize bacterial and archaeal gut communities in adult honeybees (Apis mellifera) and larvae from Varroa destructor-infested hives, comparing healthy and mite-affected groups. They found Bombella dominated larval microbiota while Gillamella, Lactobacillaceae, and Snodgrassella dominated adults, though healthy and Varroa-affected adult groups did not differ statistically, and larvae showed enrichment of genes involved in cofactor and vitamin biosynthesis.

2022
Article Tier 2

Effects of different microplastic types and co-exposure on the survival of Apis mellifera ligustica (Spinola, 1806) and its associated microbial communities

Researchers fed honey bees three types of microplastics (polystyrene, polyethylene, and polymethyl methacrylate) individually and in combination, and found that all treatments significantly reduced bee survival compared to controls. The combination of all three microplastic types had the strongest negative effect, and the gut microbial community showed time- and treatment-specific shifts that may represent an initial compensatory response to maintain functional stability.

2026 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Cladosporium—Insect Relationships

This review examines the wide-ranging relationships between Cladosporium fungi and insects, from harmful interactions where the fungus kills pests to beneficial ones that support pollination. The study suggests these fungal-insect partnerships play important ecological roles, including potential applications in biological pest control and understanding how ecosystems function.

2024 Journal of Fungi 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Biodiversity and Challenges of Honey Bee Population in Pakistan

This review examines the biodiversity and ecological challenges facing honey bee populations in Pakistan, covering threats from habitat loss, pesticide use, disease, and climate change. The authors assess the status of native bee species and managed colonies and discuss implications for agricultural pollination services and food security in the region.

2024 Science Letters 1 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

Influence of Age of Infection on the Gut Microbiota in Worker Honey Bees (Apis mellifera iberiensis) Experimentally Infected with Nosema ceranae

Researchers studied how infection with the gut parasite Nosema ceranae affects the microbiome of honey bees at different ages. The study found that infected bees, especially those infected shortly after emerging, showed significant shifts in their gut bacteria populations, suggesting that both age and infection timing play important roles in how bee gut health is disrupted.

2024 Microorganisms 5 citations
Article Tier 2

The Floral Microbiome: Plant, Pollinator, and Microbial Perspectives

This review examines the ecology of flower-associated microbial communities, exploring how bacteria and fungi on petals and nectar influence floral traits and pollinator behavior. The ecological and evolutionary significance of floral microbiomes remains an open question with implications for understanding plant-pollinator interactions and conservation.

2020 Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and Systematics 213 citations
Article Tier 2

The Gut Microbiome Associated to Honeybees and Waste-reducing Insects

This review examined the gut microbiomes of honeybees and insects that consume organic waste including plastic-contaminated food, finding that gut bacteria play key roles in digestion and immunity. Some insect gut bacteria are being studied for their potential to biodegrade plastics, making this a relevant intersection of microbiology and plastic pollution research.

2017 Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca (Universita Degli Studi Di Milano) 2 citations
Review Tier 2

Honey Bees as Bioindicators of Air Pollution: A Narrative Review on Human Health Implications

This review explores the use of honey bees as bioindicators of air pollution, including airborne microplastics, within a One Health framework. Researchers found that bees accumulate environmental contaminants during foraging, making them effective biological monitors for tracking air quality and pollution exposure relevant to both ecosystem and human health.

2026 REVISTA BIOMÉDICA
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