Nutrition as a critical link between biodiversity and bee health

Picture: The photo shows a scientist in the laboratory holding an insect with tweezers over the opening of a plastic tube. The scientist is wearing blue latex gloves. Laboratory materials can be seen in the background.

Goals

The aim is to understand how land-use-induced changes in the diversity and composition of flowering plants affect the interactions between plants and bees. Data will be collected on the following parameters:

Diversity and abundance of wild bee species throughout the year
Nutritional and health status of collected bee species in relation to the LUI
Bee-flower interaction networks
Chemical composition of pollen of bee-visited bee plant species

More information about this project can be found here: https://nutrib2.project.uj.edu.pl/

Picture: The photo shows a clipboard lying on the grass of an unmown meadow in the sunshine. Documents are attached to the clipboard. A pen and a sealed centrifuge tube are on the form above. In the background of the picture, a fenced climate measuring station, individual tall shrubs and, on the horizon, meadows and forests can be seen under a blue sky with clouds.

Climate station

Picture: The photo shows the good-humoured scientists of the project team jumping around in a meadow with insect catching quivers in their hands.

NutriB2 Field Team

Publications

Data on visitation records from wild bees and plants along a land use gradient in Germany and Belgium: laboratory work and protocol description for barcoding

Parreño M. A., Werle S., Buydens L., Spitz J., Härtl F., Montoya J., Ruedenauer F., Arisoy B., Seiler R., Leroy C., Feng-Spitz Q., Nebauer C. A., Ferrari A., Proessl N., Borchardt R., Peters B., Siebler S., Reese M., Schumacher N., Phung T., Schildt K., Ebensberger J., Seiler M., Reiter P., Beelaert S., Buydens M., Koirala S., Moreniere J., Tänzler R., Alaux C., Filipiak M., Meeus I., Piot N., Kuhlmann M., Requier F., Klein A., Brunet J. L., Henry M., Keller A., Leonhardt S. D. (2025): Data on visitation records from wild bees and plants along a land use gradient in Germany and Belgium: laboratory work and protocol description for barcoding. Data in Brief 61, 111672. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2025.111672.

Landscape heterogeneity correlates with bee and pollen diversity while size and specialization degree explain species-specific responses of wild bees to the environment

Parreno M. A., Werle S., Buydens L., Leroy C. , Roberts S., Koirala S., Filipiak M., Kuhlman M., Brunet J.-L., Henry M., Alaux C., Requier F., Piot N., Meeus I., Klein A.-M., Keller A., Leonhardt S. D. (2024): Landscape heterogeneity correlates with bee and pollen diversity while size and specialization degree explain species-specific responses of wild bees to the environment. Science of The Total Environment 954, 176595. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176595

Bare soil spots in grasslands in relation to wildbee richness and abundance

Nackte Bodenstellen im Grasland in Bezug auf Wildbienenreichtum und -reichtum

Härtl F. (2023): Bare soil spots in grasslands in relation to wildbee richness and abundance. Master thesis, TU München

Land-use intensity effects on intraspecific variation of pollination-associated floral traits in four typical grassland species

Auswirkungen der Landnutzungsintensität auf die intraspezifische Variation von bestäubungsassoziierten Blütenmerkmalen bei vier typischen Grünlandarten

Höwener A. S. (2022): Land-use intensity effects on intraspecific variation of pollination-associated floral traits in four typical grassland species. Master thesis, TU München

Critical links between biodiversity and health in wild bee conservation.

Parreño M.A., Alaux C., Brunet J.-L., Buydens L., Filipiak M., Henry M., Keller A., Klein A.-M., Kuhlmann M., Leroy C., Meeus I., Palmer-Young E., Piot N., Requier F., Ruedenauer F., Smagghe G., Stevenson P. C., Leonhardt S. D. (2022): Critical links between biodiversity and health in wild bee conservation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 37 (4), 309-321. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.11.013.

Automatization Process of Landscape Heterogeneity Index for Biodiversity Exploratories

Automatisierungsprozess des Landschaftsheterogenitätsindex für Biodiversitätsexploratorien

Arisoy B. (2022): Automatization Process of Landscape Heterogeneity Index for Biodiversity Exploratories. Master thesis, TU München

Effects of Land-use Intensity on Pollen Diversity in Brood Cells of Osmia Bicornis A Light Microscopic Study of Pollen

Auswirkungen der Landnutzungsintensität auf Pollen Vielfalt in Brutzellen von Osmia Bicornis Eine lichtmikroskopische Untersuchung von Pollen

Seiler R. (2022): Effects of Land-use Intensity on Pollen Diversity in Brood Cells of Osmia Bicornis. Master thesis, TU München

Datasets

Public Datasets

ITS2 DNA metabarcoding of wild bee pollen loads, collected in 2020 and 2021 across all three exploratories

Werle, Susanne (2023): ITS2 DNA metabarcoding of wild bee pollen loads, collected in 2020 and 2021 across all three exploratories. Version 1. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de/ddm/data/Showdata/31545?tag=1. Dataset ID= 31545

Visitation records of bees in Germany (58 plots)

Parreno, Alejandra (2021): Visitation records of bees in Germany (58 plots). Version 1. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de/ddm/data/Showdata/31131?tag=1. Dataset ID= 31131

Non-public datasets

Land cover assessment of trees and grass 200 m around the centroid of plots with wild bee trap nests

Filipiak, Zuzanna (2025): Land cover assessment of trees and grass 200 m around the centroid of plots with wild bee trap nests. Version 3. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 32039

Stoichiometric composition of bees in wild bee trap nests

Filipiak, Michal (2025): Stoichiometric composition of bees in wild bee trap nests. Version 6. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 32040

Wild bee nest occupation and identification through barcoding 2020-2022

Werle, Susanne (2025): Wild bee nest occupation and identification through barcoding 2020-2022. Version 5. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 32041

Stoichiometry of pollen composition of wild bee nests

Filipiak, Michal (2025): Stoichiometry of pollen composition of wild bee nests. Version 1. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 32042

Pathogen content from bees in German and Belgium in 2020-2021

Buydens, Louella (2025): Pathogen content from bees in German and Belgium in 2020-2021. Version 6. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 32124

Seasonal variation in bee-plant-pathogen networks in German and Belgium in 2020-2021

Buydens, Louella (2025): Seasonal variation in bee-plant-pathogen networks in German and Belgium in 2020-2021. Version 5. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 32224

Phylogenetic relationship between bees for bee-pathogen network analysis

Buydens, Louella (2025): Phylogenetic relationship between bees for bee-pathogen network analysis. Version 5. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 32227

Summary of bee pathogen networks in sites in Belgium, Alb, Hainich and Schorfheide

Buydens, Louella (2025): Summary of bee pathogen networks in sites in Belgium, Alb, Hainich and Schorfheide. Version 1. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 32225

R Script for pathogen network analyses used in “Bee pathogen sharing and prevalence are linked with flower sharing and taxonomic distance within the bee community”

Buydens, Louella (2025): R Script for pathogen network analyses used in "Bee pathogen sharing and prevalence are linked with flower sharing and taxonomic distance within the bee community". Version 6. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 32226

Traits of wild bees from the literature

Parreno, Alejandra (2024): Traits of wild bees from the literature. Version 2. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 31731

Land classification in an area of 500 m2 around plots based on remote sensing data

Parreno, Alejandra (2023): Land classification in an area of 500 m² around plots based on remote sensing data. Version 4. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 31557

The interplay of landscape composition and configuration on social bee pollinators fitness

Requier, Fabrice (2023): The interplay of landscape composition and configuration on social bee pollinators fitness. Version 2. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 31555

Quadrant plant diversity 2021

Parreno, Alejandra (2023): Quadrant plant diversity 2021. Version 5. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. www.bexis.uni-jena.de. Dataset ID= 31556

Cooperations are projects financed by the cooperation partners’ own funds and thus financially independent of the DFG-funded infrastructure priority program ‟Biodiversity Exploratories (BE)”. They complement the BE with further interesting research content on biodiversity research and in return benefit from the infrastructure of the Biodiversity Exploratories.