Journal Club Article for April 2, 2021

We will dis­cuss the linked arti­cle at our next week­ly Jour­nal Club meet­ing, 4/2/21 at 12:00 PM EST. The arti­cle is titled “Effect of Win­ter­ing Dura­tion and Tem­per­a­ture on Sur­vival and Emer­gence Time in Males of the Orchard Pol­li­na­tor Osmia lig­nar­ia (Hymenoptera: Megachil­i­dae)”, and will be pre­sent­ed by STEM Researcher Alex VanHelene.

Abstract: We mea­sured win­ter sur­vival, emer­gence time fol­low­ing incu­ba­tion at 20°C, and poste­mer­gence longevi­ty in males of the orchard pol­li­na­tor Osmia lig­nar­ia Say exposed to 25 arti­fi­cial win­ter­ing treat­ments dif­fer­ing in dura­tion (30, 90, 150, 210, and 270 d) and tem­per­a­ture (0, 4, 7, 10, and 13°C). For all tem­per­a­tures, sur­vival was high­est at 90 d of win­ter­ing. Tem­per­a­tures ≥10°C were unsuit­able for win­ter­ing O. lig­nar­ia pop­u­la­tions even for short peri­ods. At 7°C, bees showed increased mor­tal­i­ty, signs of exces­sive fat body deple­tion, and decreased longevi­ty when win­tered for >150 d. Win­ter­ing dura­tions ≥210 d required tem­per­a­tures ≤4°C for accept­able sur­vival. Time to emerge fol­low­ing incu­ba­tion at 20°C decreased with increas­ing win­ter­ing dura­tion and win­ter­ing tem­per­a­ture. Many bees emerged before incu­ba­tion when win­tered for long peri­ods at the warmest tem­per­a­tures. Poste­mer­gence longevi­ty was high­est when bees were win­tered at 0°C for 210 d. Man­ag­ing the activ­i­ty of O. lig­nar­ia to coin­cide with fruit tree bloom ini­ti­a­tion is much more eas­i­ly accom­plished with the use of pop­u­la­tions exhibit­ing short emer­gence times. Sev­er­al win­ter­ing treat­ments that result­ed in accept­able sur­vival and longevi­ty (150 d at 0, 4 and 7°C, and 210–270 d at 0 and 4°C), pro­duced mean emer­gence times ≤5 d. Our results can be used to estab­lish appro­pri­ate win­ter­ing regimes for O. lig­nar­ia pop­u­la­tions man­aged to pol­li­nate orchard crops dif­fer­ing in bloom time (from almonds in Feb­ru­ary to apples in May), and there­fore, allow­ing for short­er or longer win­ter­ing durations.

https://massasoit.zoom.us/my/stemresearch

Meet­ing ID: 549 554 5262

Mas­sas­oit STEM events are open to ALL Mas­sas­oit stu­dents, fac­ul­ty, and staff.

Mas­sas­oit Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege encour­ages per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties to par­tic­i­pate in its pro­grams and activ­i­ties. If you antic­i­pate need­ing any type of accom­mo­da­tion or have ques­tions relat­ed to access for this event, please con­tact the Divi­sion of Sci­ence and Math­e­mat­ics at sciencemath@massasoit.edu in advance of your par­tic­i­pa­tion or vis­it.

Pho­to by Moritz Kindler on Unsplash