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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to The Honey Bee Apis mellifera: An Insect at the Interface between Human and Ecosystem Health
ClearBiotic 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Influence of Geographic Separation Between Urban Centers and Microplastic Burden on Bees (Apis mellifera)
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.
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.
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.
Microplastics incorporated by honeybees from food are transferred to honey, wax and larvae
Researchers found that when honeybees consume food contaminated with microplastics, the particles are transferred to honey, beeswax, and developing larvae inside the hive. Chronic exposure did not significantly affect colony growth, but the presence of microplastics in honey means humans may be ingesting them through this food source. This study reveals another pathway by which microplastics can enter the human diet through contaminated bee products.
Detection of microplastics in honey of stingless bee (Heterotrigona itama) and honey bee (Apis mellifera) from Malaysia
Researchers analyzed honey from stingless bees and European honeybees farmed in Malaysia and found microplastics in samples from both species. Microplastic types and concentrations differed between the two bee species, likely reflecting differences in foraging range and habitat, and confirming that bee honey can serve as a matrix for monitoring environmental microplastic contamination.
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.
The “Plastic Age”: From Endocrine Disruptors to Microplastics – An Emerging Threat to Pollinators
This review examines the dual threat that plastics pose to pollinators: endocrine-disrupting chemicals used in plastic manufacturing and the physical presence of micro- and nanoplastics in the environment. Researchers highlight that pollinators like bees are exposed to these contaminants through contaminated flowers, soil, and water. The study calls for more research into how plastic-derived pollution may be contributing to pollinator decline worldwide.
Microplastic contamination in the agri-food chain: The case of honeybees and beehive products
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.
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.
Harnessing Electrostatic Forces: A Review of Bees as Bioindicators for Particulate Matter Detection
This review explores how bees can serve as living environmental monitors because their bodies naturally collect airborne particles, including microplastics, through electrostatic forces. By analyzing what sticks to bees, scientists can track the presence and spread of microplastics, heavy metals, pesticides, and other pollutants in the environment. This biomonitoring approach could provide a cost-effective way to map microplastic contamination in the air across different regions.
Microplastics reach the brain and interfere with honey bee cognition
Researchers found that microplastics reach honey bee brains and impair cognitive function, with bees exposed to mixed polymer combinations showing disrupted learning and memory abilities, demonstrating that plastic pollution poses a direct threat to pollinator health.
Evaluation of microplastic pollution using bee colonies: An exploration of various sampling methodologies
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.
Unravelling the microplastic menace: Different polymers additively increase bee vulnerability
Researchers exposed bees to two common types of microplastics, both individually and combined, and found that the mixture caused additive harmful effects on survival and behavior. The microplastics impaired the bees' ability to learn and remember, which is critical for finding food and navigating. Since bees are essential pollinators for food crops, microplastic pollution threatening bee health could have indirect consequences for human food production.
Rethinking the Connections between Ecosystem Services, Pollinators, Pollution, and Health: Focus on Air Pollution and Its Impacts
This review examined the interconnections between ecosystem services, pollinators, air pollution, and human health, highlighting how airborne particulate matter disrupts pollination and other regulation services essential for environmental and human well-being.
Application of a Quality-Specific Environmental Risk Index for the Location of Hives in Areas with Different Pollution Impacts
This paper is not relevant to microplastics research — it describes a methodology for mapping regional pollution levels to identify suitable locations for placing beehives, using honeybees as environmental bio-indicators.
Insects at the crossroads of microplastics pollution: Mechanistic insights, ecological risks, and research frontiers
This review of existing research found that tiny plastic particles called microplastics are harming insects by causing stress in their bodies and affecting their ability to digest food, think clearly, and reproduce. Insects also break down larger plastic pieces into even more microplastics, making the pollution problem worse. This matters because insects are crucial for pollinating our food crops and keeping ecosystems healthy, so plastic pollution could threaten our food supply.