Bee Health

Healthy Pollinators, Healthy Environments, Healthy Communities.

Welcome to our Research Excellence Cluster on Bee Health, Impact, and Value in the Environment (BeeHIVE). 

In response to recent shortages and alarming declines of wild and managed bee populations, the BeeHIVE cluster explores the honey bee’s role as pollinator, producer, and biomonitor. Using innovative fingerprinting tools, we seek to understand how these critical functions are impacted by environmental exposures (both natural and human caused), with the common goal of improving the fate of the honey bee.

Our overarching goal is to improve the fate of the honey bee. Our research cluster adopts an interdisciplinary, integrated and novel approach to address the causes and consequences of recent declines in wild and managed bee colonies.

While many  researchers have focused on pesticides, bee declines are likely due to the cumulative impact of many subtle stressors, including heavy metals and neonicotinoid pesticides, as well as other environmental exposures (e.g., electromagnetic radiation). The BeeHIVE cluster tackles this challenge through multiple “lenses,” by exploring the honey bee’s important roles as a pollinator, producer, and biomonitor.

Collectively, we seek to understand how these critical functions are impacted by exposure to potentially harmful chemicals and changing environmental conditions through time (both natural and human-caused). Elements of the three pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental and social) are interwoven into each theme.