Honeybees modify gustatory responsiveness after receiving nectar from foragers within the hive

Food quality is a relevant characteristic to be transferred within eusocial insect colonies because its evaluation improves the collective foraging efficiency. In honeybees, colony mates could directly acquire this resource characteristic during trophallactic encounters with nectar foragers. In the present study, we focused on the gustatory responsiveness of bees that have unloaded food from incoming foragers. The sugar sensitivity of receiver bees was assessed in the laboratory by using the proboscis extension response paradigm. After unloading, hive bees were captured either from a colony that foraged freely in the environmental surroundings or from a colony that foraged at an artificial feeder with a known sucrose solution. In the first situation, the sugar sensitivity of the hive bees negatively correlated with the sugar concentration of the nectar crops brought back by forager mates. Similarly, in the controlled situation, the highest sucrose concentration the receivers accepted during trophallaxis corresponded to the highest thresholds to sucrose. The results indicate that first-order receivers modify their sugar sensitivity according to the quality of the food previously transferred through trophallaxis by the incoming foragers. In addition, trophallaxis is a mechanism capable of transferring gustatory information in honeybees. Its implications at a social scale might involve changes in the social information as well as in nectar distribution within the colony.     

Food-exchange by foragers in the hive – a means of communication among honey bees?

Dancing and trophallactic behaviour of forager honey bees, Apis mellifera ligustica >Spinola, that returned from an automatic feeder with a regulated flow rate of 50% weight-to-weight sucrose solution (range: 0.76–7.65 μl/min) were studied in an observation hive. Behavioural parameters of dancing, such as probability, duration and dance tempo, increased with the nectar flow rate, though with very different response curves among bees. For trophallaxis (i.e. mouth-to-mouth exchange of food), the frequency of giving-contacts and the transfer rate of the nectar increased with the nectar flow rate. After unloading, foragers often approached other nest mates and begged for food before returning to the food source. This behaviour was less frequent at higher nectar flow rates. These results show that the profitability of a food source in terms of nectar flow rate had a quantitative representation in the hive through quantitative changes in trophallactic and dancing behaviour. The role of trophallaxis as a communication channel during recruitment is discussed. Received: 14 January 1995/Accepted after revision: 14 August 1995     

Propagation of olfactory information within the honeybee hive

Transfer of information about food source characteristics within insect societies is essential to colony-foraging success. The food odor communicated within honeybee hives has been shown to be important for food source exploitation. When successful foragers return to the nest and transfer the collected nectar to hive mates through mouth-to-mouth contacts (trophallaxis), potential recruits receiving these samples learn the food odor by associative learning. The food then becomes rapidly distributed among colony members, which is mainly a consequence of the numerous trophallaxes between hive-mates of all ages during food processing. We tested whether the distribution of food among hive mates causes a propagation of olfactory information within the hive. Using the proboscis extension response paradigm, we show that large proportions of bees of the age groups representing the main worker castes, 4 to 9-day-old bees (nurse-aged bees), 12 to 16-day-old bees (food processor-aged bees), and actual foragers (about 17+ day old bees) associatively learn the food odor in the course of processing food that has been collected by only a few foragers. Results further suggest that the information is shared more or less equally between bees of the three age groups. This shows that olfactory information about the flower species exploited by foragers is distributed within the entire colony and is acquired by bees of all age groups, which may influence many behaviors inside and outside the hive.     

Floral scents affect the distribution of hive bees around dancers

Floral scents are important information cues used to organize foraging-related tasks in honeybees. The waggle dance, apart from encoding spatial information about food sources, might facilitate the transfer of olfactory information by increasing the dissipation of volatiles brought back by successful foragers. By assuming that food scents are more intensive on specific body parts of returning foragers, i.e., the posterior legs of pollen foragers and mouthparts of nectar foragers, we quantified the interactions between hive mates and foragers during dances advertising different types of food sources. For natural sources, a higher proportion of hive mates contacted the hind legs of pollen dancers (where the pollen loads were located) with their heads compared to non-pollen dancers. On the other hand, the proportion of head-to-head contacts was higher for non-pollen foragers during the waggle runs. When the food scent was manipulated, dancers collecting scented sugar solution had a higher proportion of head-to-head contacts and a lower proportion around their hind legs compared to dancers collecting unscented solution. The presence of food odors did not affect in-hive behaviors of dancers, but it increased the number of trophallaxes in-between waggle runs (i.e., during circle phases). These results suggest that the honeybee dance facilitates the olfactory information transfer between incoming foragers and hive mates, and we propose that excitatory displays in other social insect species serve the same purpose. While recent empirical and theoretical findings suggested that the colony level foraging benefits of the spatial information encoded in the waggle dance vary seasonally and with habitats, the role of the dance as a compound signal not only indicating the presence of a profitable resource but also amplifying the information transfer regarding floral odors may be important under any ecological circumstances.     

Preferences and tradeoffs in nectar temperature and nectar concentration in the Asian hive bee Apis cerana

Honey bee foragers need to asses and make trade-offs between a number of potentially conflicting floral attributes. Here, we investigate multi-attribute decision making in the eastern honey bee, Apis cerana, when foraging on food sources that varied in warmth and sucrose concentration. We show that foragers prefer warm (30 °C) sucrose solution over cool (10 °C) sucrose solution and concentrated (30 % w/w) sucrose solution over dilute (15 % w/w) sucrose solution. When we offered the preferred sucrose concentration (30 % w/w) at the less-preferred temperature (10 °C), and the less-preferred sucrose concentration (15 % w/w) at the preferred temperature (30 °C), foragers prioritized warmth by choosing the warmer, but lower concentration solution. When the temperature difference was less extreme, bees preferred more concentrated cooler syrup (30 % ww at 15 °C over 15 % 30 °C). However, the addition of a decoy item to the choice set had a significant effect on the bees' preferences. Our results highlight the critical importance of considering context effects when measuring the foraging preferences of animals.     

Anti-predatory vigilance and the limits to collective detection: visual and spatial separation between foragers

Collective detection concerns the idea that all members of a socially feeding group are alerted to an attack as long as at least one group member detects it. We found that collective detection in mixed flocks of emberizid sparrows is limited markedly by relatively small degrees of visual and spatial separation between foragers. These limits on collective detection appear to influence the degree to which flock members lower their vigilance with increasing group size (the group size effect). Specifically, the decrease in collective detection with increasing visual and spatial isolation between foragers is accompanied by a concomitant decrease in the strength of the vigilance group size effect. Explanations for the vigilance-related effects of such separation based upon a bird’s ability to monitor the vigilance behavior of flockmates can be ruled out for our experimental system. Our results also shed light on the issue of whether the vigilance group size effect is influenced more by collective detection or the simple dilution of risk with increasing group size. We argue that collective detection is not only an important determinant of the group size effect, but also that the phenomena of collective detection and risk dilution are interdependent. Received: 25 July 1995/Accepted after revision: 17 December 1995     

Males are faster foragers than females: intersexual differences of foraging behaviour in the Apennine chamois

Availability of food resources and individual characteristics can influence foraging behaviour, which can differ between males and females, leading to different patterns of food/habitat selection. In dimorphic species, females are usually more selective in food choice, show greater bite rates and spend more time foraging than males. We evaluated sexual differences in foraging behaviour in Apennine chamois Rupicapra pyrenaica ornata, during the warm season, before the rut. Both sexes selected nutritious vegetation patches and spent a comparable amount of time feeding. However, males had a significantly greater feeding intensity (bite rate) and a lower search effort for feeding (step rate), as well as they spent more time lying down than females. Females selected foraging sites closer to refuge areas than males. In chamois, sexual size dimorphism is seasonal, being negligible in winter–spring, but increasing to 30–40 % in autumn. Our results suggest that males enhance their energy and mass gain by increasing their food intake rate during the warm season, to face the costs of the mating season (November). Conversely, females seem to prioritize a fine-scale selection of vegetation and the protection of offspring. A great food intake rate of males in the warm season could have developed as a behavioural adaptation leading herbivores to the evolutionary transition from year-round monomorphism to permanent dimorphism, through seasonal dimorphism.     

The regulation of pollen foraging by honey bees: how foragers assess the colony's need for pollen

Summary The honey bee colony presents a challenging paradox. Like an organism, it functions as a coherent unit, carefully regulating its internal milieu. But the colony consists of thousands of loosely assembled individuals each functioning rather autonomously. How, then, does the colony acquire the necessary information to organize its work force? And how do individuals acquire information about specific colony needs, and thus know what tasks need be performed? I address these questions through experiments that analyze how honey bees acquire information about the colony's need for pollen and how they regulate its collection. The results demonstrate features of the colony's system for regulating pollen foraging: (1) Pollen foragers quickly acquire new information about the colony's need for pollen. (2) When colony pollen stores are supplemented, many pollen foragers respond by switching to nectar foraging or by remaining in the hive and ceasing to forage at all. (3) Pollen foragers do not need direct contact with pollen to sense the colony's change of state, nor do they use the odor of pollen as a cue to assess the colony's need for pollen. (4) Pollen foragers appear to obtain their information about colony pollen need indirectly from other bees in the hive. (5) The information takes the form of an inhibitory cue. The proposed mechanism for the regulation of pollen foraging involves a hierarchical system of information acquisition and a negative feedback loop. By taking advantage of the vast processing capacity of large numbers of individuals working in parallel, such a system of information acquisition and dissemination may be ideally suited to promote efficient regulation of labor within the colony. Although each individual relies on only limited, local information, the colony as a whole achieves a finely-tuned response to the changing conditions it experiences.     

酸性硫酸盐土鳗塘水体防酸技术

为了克服生产实际中用石灰调节鳗塘水体酸性的弊端,利用石灰石石屑防御酸性物质入侵,效果特别好。水体pH维持在7～8的恒定水平;相关溶解氧含量也适合鳗鱼生长的需要:水草生长茂盛;经济效益可观。     

Estimating the Density of Honeybee Colonies across Their Natural Range to Fill the Gap in Pollinator Decline Censuses

Abstract: Although pollinator declines are a global biodiversity threat, the demography of the western honeybee (Apis mellifera) has not been considered by conservationists because it is biased by the activity of beekeepers. To fill this gap in pollinator decline censuses and to provide a broad picture of the current status of honeybees across their natural range, we used microsatellite genetic markers to estimate colony densities and genetic diversity at different locations in Europe, Africa, and central Asia that had different patterns of land use. Genetic diversity and colony densities were highest in South Africa and lowest in Northern Europe and were correlated with mean annual temperature. Confounding factors not related to climate, however, are also likely to influence genetic diversity and colony densities in honeybee populations. Land use showed a significantly negative influence over genetic diversity and the density of honeybee colonies over all sampling locations. In Europe honeybees sampled in nature reserves had genetic diversity and colony densities similar to those sampled in agricultural landscapes, which suggests that the former are not wild but may have come from managed hives. Other results also support this idea: putative wild bees were rare in our European samples, and the mean estimated density of honeybee colonies on the continent closely resembled the reported mean number of managed hives. Current densities of European honeybee populations are in the same range as those found in the adverse climatic conditions of the Kalahari and Saharan deserts, which suggests that beekeeping activities do not compensate for the loss of wild colonies. Our findings highlight the importance of reconsidering the conservation status of honeybees in Europe and of regarding beekeeping not only as a profitable business for producing honey, but also as an essential component of biodiversity conservation.     

作物根系对干旱胁迫逆境的适应性研究进展

主要就作物根系的形态性状、根系提水作用、生理代谢、根系细胞壁蛋白及其生长性能与干旱胁迫间的关系作了综述;指出应加强对干旱逆境下根系发育及根系生长性状变化上的遗传机理研究。     

双季稻区冬种覆盖作物对土壤微生物量的影响

利用氯仿熏蒸浸提法研究了南方双季稻区4种冬季覆盖作物对土壤微生物量碳、氮周年动态的影响.结果表明:冬季种植紫云英(Astragalus sinicus L.)、黑麦草(Lolium multiflroum Lam.)和马铃薯(Solanum tuberosum L.)土壤微生物量碳含量分别为:248.8mg·kg-1、256.7mg·kg-1和238.9mg·kg-1均显著高于冬闲田的218.3 mg·kg-1(P<0.05),增幅为9.43%～17.59%;冬季种植油菜(Brassica campestris L.)土壤微生物量碳比冬闲田提高了0.63%,没有显著性差异.4种覆盖作物土壤微生物量氮含量分别为:紫云英,100.3 mg·kg-1、黑麦草,153.8 mg·kg-1、马铃薯,99.9 mg·kg-1和油菜,86.2 mg·kg-1,均显著高于冬闲田,73.5 mg·kg-1(P<0.05).对比冬闲田,各个覆盖作物均显著提高土壤有机质含量(P<0.05).说明种植冬季覆盖作物可以提高土壤有机质含量和有效养分含量,促进了土壤微生物的活动,有利于保持土壤肥力.     

燃煤烟气脱硫副产物对花生作物营养效应及其机理

花生盆栽试验研究结果表明，施脱硫副产物可增强供试土壤的离子吸附能力，提高土壤持水性和阳离子交换量；施脱硫副产物可显著增强花生对养分的吸收，提高单盆花生养分吸收量，但由于钙的离子拮抗效应增强。在花生生长后期，植株叶片钾、镁、氮质量分数下降，其影响程度与供试物施用量有关；在供试物施用量4.5～15g／kg条件下，花岗岩红壤上花生增产21.45％-25.59％，砂页岩赤红壤上花生增产40.52%～57.18％。     

Standing crop and leaf area index of the sublittoral Laminaria species near Helgoland

Standing crop values of Laminaria species sampled between 0 to 2 m depth in the sublittoral of Helgoland, a small rocky island in the southern North Sea, are similar to those reported by other workers from Norwegian or Scottish coasts. Below 2 m water depth, however, standing crop values are found to be reduced to a far greater extent with increasing depth than in the Norwegian or Scottish areas studied. Maximum standing crop values are not found in Laminaria digitata and L. saccharina growing just below the low water mark of spring tides, but in the upper L. hyperborea forest at 2 m depth. Population density and leaf area index (LAI) decrease with increasing depth (but not the average weight of individuals constituting the L. hyperborea forest). It is suggested that the depth at which LAI becomes 1 represents an important ecological threshold, since growth rates of L. hyperborea specimens appear to decrease at greater depths but not to increase above the threshold. Self-shading might equalize, to a certain extent, the quantity of underwater irradiance available to an individual phylloid at all depths at which a close vegetation of Laminaria species occurs.     

秸秆掩埋还田对黄淮海平原耕层土壤温度及作物生长的影响

通过大田试验,研究了作物秸秆行间掩埋配施不同类型氮肥（矿质化肥和鸡粪）下耕层土壤温度的变化及对作物生长的影响。结果表明,秸秆还田初期配施氮肥对秸秆有激发效应,能提高耕层的土壤温度,提高幅度受大气温度、降水的影响。秸秆行间掩埋配施质量分数为16%总氮的鸡粪和24%总氮的化学氮肥耕层土壤的增温效果明显,土壤温度分别上升0.7和0.8℃。秸秆行间掩埋还田对作物生长的影响因作物类型和生育期而异,从不同生育期来看,作物前期的生长受秸秆行间掩埋还田的影响最大。从作物类型来看,配施质量分数为8%、16%、24%总氮的鸡粪,拔节期冬小麦的生物量低于对照38.7%、29.4%和27.9%,3个处理分别与对照差异显著（P〈0.05）,玉米没有差异。秸秆行间掩埋配施质量分数为8%、16%、24%总氮的矿质氮肥,拔节期冬小麦的生物量低于对照25.7%、30.9%和14.1%,配施低、中量化学氮肥与对照差异显著（P〈0.05）;各处理玉米生物量高于对照0.9%、50.8%和19.8%,配施中量化学氮肥与对照有明显差异（P〈0.05）。     

Assessing the effect of long-term crop cultivation on distribution of Cd in the root zone

Trace elements such as cadmium (Cd) may be inadvertently added to cropland soils through application of fertilizers, irrigation water, and other amendments. These toxic trace elements pose a potentially threat to soil quality and, through the food chain transfer, to human health. A generalized soil trace element mass balance model that accounts for the interactive processes governing the reactions of trace elements in soils, and consequently removed with crop harvest and leaching out of the soil profile with irrigation water was developed in this research. The model conceptually approximates the mechanisms and kinetics of a real field cropland system. The model was used to evaluate the long-term cultivation on distribution of Cd in California croplands. Under typical California cropping practices, Cd added into the soils accumulated primarily in the plow layer while the Cd content below the plow layer was barely affected. After 100 years of continuous cultivation, the soil Cd content of the plow layer increases from the background level 0.22 mg kg⁻¹ to 0.40 mg kg⁻¹. The accumulation of Cd in the plow layer is in proportion to the external inputs and is affected by the soil and plant characteristics, and management practices. The model can be used to evaluate the environmental fates of other toxic element in soils with case specific parameters.     

Variations in pigment contents of the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum during growth

Changes in the amounts of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll c, fucoxanthin, diadinoxanthin and -carotene were determined during Phaeodactylum tricornutum growth. The transition of the culture from the logarithmic to the stationary phase is accompanied by an increase in the carotenoids: chlorophyll a ratio, associated with variations in the percentage of individual carotenoids. While fucoxanthin content decreases with the age of the culture, diadinoxanthin content increases and -carotene remains almost constant. The furanoid isomer of diadinoxanthin, absent during logarithmic growth, appears increasingly during the nutrient-deficient period. Changes in the amounts of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll c and fucoxanthin are quite similar.     

长期定位施肥对土壤微量元素含量的影响

在25年长期定位试验研究基础上,分析了无肥、N、NP、NPK、N 有机肥和N 秸秆6个不同施肥处理的0～20cm土壤微量元素B、Fe、Mn、Cu和Zn的质量分数变化。结果表明:不同施肥处理的土壤有效B和有效Zn均为增加,分别是试验基础数值的2.9倍～4.7倍和1.0倍～4.7倍。N 有机肥处理质量分数最高,无肥处理最低。有效Fe、Mn、Cu的质量分数除N 有机肥处理的Fe和Cu增加了0.95mg·kg-1和0.43mg·kg-1以外,都呈现出下降的趋势。各处理的土壤全量Fe呈减少趋势,全量Mn、Cu和Zn除无肥处理和Cu除单施N肥处理稍有减少以外,都呈现增加的趋势。全量Cu和Zn以N 有机肥处理质量分数最高,N 秸秆和施用P肥处理次之。施用以垃圾、畜禽废弃物为原料的有机肥以及施用P肥等可以增加土壤微量元素,施肥是影响土壤微量元素质量分数变化的重要因素。