Pollination is an important ecosystem service necessary for 80% of global plant reproduction. This service can also improve fruit production and is essential for 84% of all crops grown in the EU. However, some pollinators have been declining for the last decades and the important honey bee is no exception. One of the reasons to this decline is believed to be agricultural use of chemicals (i.e. fungicides, herbicides and insecticides). One of the most commonly used herbicides is RoundUp, which include glyphosate as its active substance. In this study, I test if RoundUp affects honey bee behaviour by exposing them during a short-term period to one of three different concentrations (0 mg/l, 5 mg/l and 50 mg/l). The test was conducted in a wind tunnel and aimed to test the hypothesis that glyphosate affects searching abilities and flight time of honey bees. In contrast to my hypothesis, I was unable to detect effects on searching ability. However, method limitations might have been the reason only three bees, out of 147, found the food. My analysis showed neither any effects from RoundUp on fly time (P>0.05) or activity (P=0.066). However, in my data I could see a negative trend in activity and due to earlier data collected around glyphosate, I argue that exposure to glyphosate might have a negative long-term impact on honey bee survival.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-151895 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Lövbom, Oskar |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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