Pesticides and Irish Weather: What’s the buzz for bees?

Bees and other pollinators provide essential pollination services to crops and wild plants. However, bee declines are causing concerns around the sustained provision of these services. Two key drivers of decline include pesticide use and climate change, but how both are related to the pollination services bees provide are not well understood, in particular in an Irish context. Here we used a series of lab and field experiments, as well as real world observations, to test how pesticides widely used in Ireland may impact solitary bee and bumblebee pollination services of crops. We also investigated relationships between changing Irish weather and bee activity, to provide a baseline when assessing future climate changes. Widely used Irish insecticides impacted bumblebee pollen collection and resource provision, while solitary bee responses were more variable and dependent on the number of exposures. Pollinator groups varied in their responses to weather; in general bumblebees were hardier and flew in a wider range of weather conditions than honeybees and solitary bees who were more sensitive. This suggests pollinator groups may be differentially impacted by future climate changes. Results are discussed in the context of pollinator conservation and policy in Ireland, to ensure sustainable provision of pollination services to agriculture and in the environment.