Suchergebnisse

International audience ; Pollen comprises many organic substances (sugars, lipids, proteins, amino acids, vitamins, etc.), all of which are built from elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, zinc, and approximately twenty others. These special nutritional elements compose the cells, tissues, and bodies of all the life forms on our planet and are needed by bee larvae for healthy growth. However, not all plants produce pollen containing these elements in proportions needed specifically by bees, meaning that not all pollens are nutritionally balanced for bees. Moreover, the decrease in plant diversity is thought to be among the main causes of the dwindling numbers of pollinators worldwide. Currently, governments and societies are attempting to combat this pollinator decline by providing nutritionally balanced and diverse food plants to pollinators. Knowing which nutritional elements are crucial for the bee diet and understanding why are prerequisites for tailoring conservation efforts for this group of insects, which are substantially important for human nutrition and ecosystem functioning. Basic information obtained from feeding experiments is important for synergistically understanding how plant diversity within certain species that produce pollens with rich or scarce amounts of certain nutritional elements influences bee health and prosperity.

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Pollen comprises many organic substances (sugars, lipids, proteins, amino acids, vitamins, etc.), all of which are built from elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, zinc, and approximately twenty others. These special nutritional elements compose the cells, tissues, and bodies of all the life forms on our planet and are needed by bee larvae for healthy growth. However, not all plants produce pollen containing these elements in proportions needed specifically by bees, meaning that not all pollens are nutritionally balanced for bees. Moreover, the decrease in plant diversity is thought to be among the main causes of the dwindling numbers of pollinators worldwide. Currently, governments and societies are attempting to combat this pollinator decline by providing nutritionally balanced and diverse food plants to pollinators. Knowing which nutritional elements are crucial for the bee diet and understanding why are prerequisites for tailoring conservation efforts for this group of insects, which are substantially important for human nutrition and ecosystem functioning. Basic information obtained from feeding experiments is important for synergistically understanding how plant diversity within certain species that produce pollens with rich or scarce amounts of certain nutritional elements influences bee health and prosperity. ABSTRACT: Bee nutrition studies have focused on food quantity rather than quality, and on details of bee biology rather than on the functioning of bees in ecosystems. Ecological stoichiometry has been proposed for studies on bee nutritional ecology as an ecosystem-oriented approach complementary to traditional approaches. It uses atomic ratios of chemical elements in foods and organisms as metrics to ask ecological questions. However, information is needed on the fitness effects of nutritional mismatches between bee demand and the supply of specific elements in food. We performed the first laboratory feeding experiment on the wild bee ...