Article pre-print excerpts
In Montreal (province of Quebec, Canada) the number of beehives increased from 165 in 2012 to nearly 500 in 2016, and to about 1200 in 2019. This popularity is the result of beliefs that, in cities, the use of pesticides is limited and that floral diversity is better compared to monocultures of the agricultural environment. Yet is that the case?
In the summer of 2018, we sampled honeybees (foragers and larvae) in rural (Laurentians) and urban (city of Montreal) areas and compared them using the following biomarkers: carotenoids, retinoids, α-tocopherol, metallothionein-like proteins (MTLPs), lipid peroxidation, triglycerides, acetylcholinesterase activity (AChE) and proteins. Pesticides, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and metals were also quantified in honeybees’ tissues.
Our result revealed that, globally, urban foragers had higher levels of insecticides and PPCPs and that metals were in greater concentrations in urban larvae. Compared to rural foragers, urban foragers had higher concentrations of MTLPs, triglycerides, protein and AChE activity. The multifactorial analysis confirmed that insecticides, some metals and PPCPs were the most influential components in the contaminant‒biomarker relationships for both foragers and larva.
Our study demonstrated that contaminants were present not only in the countryside but in urban areas as well. The biomarkers tested did not allow to conclude that a better environment for bees would be in rural or urban areas; however, we think that urban bees of our study were at greater risk. Urban foragers had higher concentrations of insecticides and PPCPs and higher metal contents were found in larvae. Some retinoids were in higher concentrations in urban bees, as were MTLPs, proteins and, to a lesser extent, AChE activity.
Mahé, C, Jumarie, C, Boily, M, The countryside or the city: which environment is better for the honeybee?, Environmental Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.110784.
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