Effects of Bacterial Community Diversity on Beehive Health
Disciplines
Genetics
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Bee pollination massively supports our food supply, economy, and overall biodiversity. With beekeepers seeing an increase in colony losses over the last few years, finding better ways to support hive health is crucial. A beehive’s health can be assessed by observing how much honey it produces, and it is well known that factors such as climate change and pesticide use impact hive health. Bacterial diversity is another potential factor impacting hive health that can be analyzed to create ways to optimize maintenance and growth of hives. DNA metabarcoding is a method that evaluates standardized sections of the genome that are unique to certain species in order to identify all species within a sample. We used DNA metabarcoding to determine the species of bacteria present in samples taken from three different beehives of varying ages and degrees of health. Bacterial diversity between the hives will be compared, and it is expected that the hives with greater bacterial diversity will be older and healthier. Methods to increase or diversify the microbiome could be developed to promote hive health.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
CSM - Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Thomas McElroy
Effects of Bacterial Community Diversity on Beehive Health
Bee pollination massively supports our food supply, economy, and overall biodiversity. With beekeepers seeing an increase in colony losses over the last few years, finding better ways to support hive health is crucial. A beehive’s health can be assessed by observing how much honey it produces, and it is well known that factors such as climate change and pesticide use impact hive health. Bacterial diversity is another potential factor impacting hive health that can be analyzed to create ways to optimize maintenance and growth of hives. DNA metabarcoding is a method that evaluates standardized sections of the genome that are unique to certain species in order to identify all species within a sample. We used DNA metabarcoding to determine the species of bacteria present in samples taken from three different beehives of varying ages and degrees of health. Bacterial diversity between the hives will be compared, and it is expected that the hives with greater bacterial diversity will be older and healthier. Methods to increase or diversify the microbiome could be developed to promote hive health.