In all, the researchers "eavesdropped" on 5,484 dances to find that the best forage within the 94 km2 of mixed urban-rural landscape included in the study—as far as bees and, by extension, other insect pollinators are concerned—is a place called Castle Hill, which happened to be the only National Nature Reserve in the area. More broadly, High Level agri-environment schemes were the best places for bees.
The researchers were surprised to find that Organic Entry Level agri-environment schemes were the least frequented by bees. According to Couvillon, it may be that the regular mowing required initially to discourage certain plants from growing in those plots might leave few wildflowers for bees.
The study shows that honeybees can serve as bioindicators to monitor large land areas and provide information relevant to better environmental management, the researchers say. It also gives new meaning to the term "worker bee."
This shows bees on dandelions.
(Photo Credit: Dr. Margaret Couvillon and Dr. Roger Schürch)
"Imagine the time, manpower, and cost to survey such an area on foot—to monitor nectar sources for quality and quantity of production, to count the number of other flower-visiting insects to account for competition, and then to do this over and over for two foraging years," Couvillon says. "Instead, we have let the honeybees do the hard work of surveying the landscape and integrating all relevant costs and then providing, through their dance communication, this biologically relevant information about landscape quality."
This is Dr. Margaret Couvillon decoding dance movements.
(Photo Credit: Dr. Margaret Couvillon and Dr. Roger Schürch)
This is an image of dancing bees.
(Photo Credit: Dr. Roger Schürch)
Source: Cell Press