>I was referring to local adaptations in short periods such as are being claimed. No one here disputes evolutionary adaptation over time based on local conditions.

Please forgive me if I misunderstood, but I took the original thesis presented as follows:

>I think the overall success of honey bees worldwide is evidence that they are not locally adapted but rather, high adaptable.

Was intended to present a case against local adaptation. The current line of logic clarifies that we are discussing 'local adaptations in short periods as are being claimed'.

Is this statement in response to claims being made by particular researchers or a research study that has previously been referenced?

One thing I like about Bee-L is the focus on 'informed discussion'. So I am certainly interested in evaluating research that considers the question of local adaptation and what that might mean for apiculture at-large.

If there is interest in this discussion, we can start with the first published research from the GEI effort:

Honey bee genotypes and the environment - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.3896/IBRA.1.53.2.01?needAccess=true

They start with this observation and question:

'... until now, no systematic comparisons of different strains of bees under standardised conditions in a range of environments have taken place. A bee that performs well in one region may not perform well in an area with different conditions, or indeed in another area with apparently similar conditions. And what do we mean by “performance” anyway, and how do we measure it?'

Their '... main hypothesis was that the health of honey bee colonies cannot be understood without considering the genetic variability of honey bee populations and their adaptation to regional environmental factors, such as climate, vegetation and prevailing diseases (Meixner et al., 2010). The objectives of the working group were: 1. to develop and test internationally recognised criteria for vitality; 2. to establish standardised methods to assess honey bee colonies based on these criteria, resulting in methodological and technical recommendations for breeders; 3. to investigate the role of interactions between genetic diversity and environment on honey bee colony vitality, and 4. to produce common standard protocols for characterising the subspecific variation of honey bees.'

And they summarize their research by noting, 'The conclusions from this comprehensive field experiment all tend to confirm the higher vitality of the local bees compared to the non-local ones, indicating that a more sustainable beekeeping is possible by using and breeding bees from the local populations, although the interactions are complex. This may seem logical and obvious to many bee scientists, but has not been proven on such a wide scale before. This conclusion may also come as surprise to some beekeepers who believe that queens purchased from sources outside their own region are in some way “better” than the bees they already have in their own hives. We hope that our results may provide them with additional information and entice the community to regard benefits other than the mere amount of honey produced in a season as important.'

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