Multivariate Landscape Analysis of Honey Bee Winter Mortality in Wallonia, Belgium
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Multivariate Landscape Analysis of Honey Bee Winter Mortality in Wallonia, Belgium Leen Van Esch 1 & Jean-Luc De Kok 1
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& Liliane Janssen & Bart Buelens & Lina De Smet & Dirk C. de Graaf & Guy Engelen
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Received: 3 July 2018 / Accepted: 15 September 2019 # The Author(s) 2019
Abstract The European honey bee species (Apis mellifera L.) is under increasing pressure from anthropogenic and other stressors. Winter mortality of entire colonies is generally attributed to biological, environmental, and management conditions. The rates of winter mortality can vary extremely from place to place. A landscape approach is used here to examine the dependency between spatially distributed winter mortality rates, environmental and biological conditions, and apiary management. The analysis was applied to data for the region of Wallonia in Belgium with winter mortality rates obtained from the European project EPILOBEE. Potential explanatory variables were spatially allocated based on GIS analysis, and subjected to binomial linear regression to identify the most predominant variables related to bee winter mortality. The results point to infestation with Varroa, the number of frost days, the potential flying hours, the connectivity of the natural landscape, and the use of plant protection products as most dominant causes for the region of Wallonia. The outcomes of this study will help focus beekeeping and environmental management to improve bee health and the effectiveness of apiary practices. The approach surpasses application to the problem of bee mortality and could be used to compare and rank the causes of other environmental problems by their significance, particularly when these are interdependent and spatially differentiated. Keywords Honey bee . Winter mortality . Generalized linear modelling . Landscape analysis . Binomial regression . Belgium
1 Introduction In addition to honey production, honey bees such as Apis mellifera L. in Europe are essential to support biodiversity as they are the most important pollinators of multiple plant species. As much as 80% of all pollination is attributed to honey bee activity [1]. Worldwide increased (winter) mortality rates are observed among honey bees as well as solitary bees [2–5]. In the past, high winter mortality rates were reported for France for the winter of 1999–2000 [2, 6], the USA [7, 8], and more recently Belgium [4] and China [9]. Winter mortality of complete colonies is generally attributed to a complex combination of biological and environmental conditions, and
* Jean-Luc De Kok [email protected] 1
Unit Environmental Modelling, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO NV), Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
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Laboratory of Molecular Entomology and Bee Pathology, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
poor apiary management. Reported causes of winter mortality include the level of infestation with the Varroa mite [10–12], the connectivity of the natural landscape [13], the us
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