Acute and chronic ingestion of polyethylene (PE) microplastics has mild effects on honey bee health and cognition

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12520%2F22%3A43904470" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12520/22:43904470 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119318" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119318</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119318" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119318</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Acute and chronic ingestion of polyethylene (PE) microplastics has mild effects on honey bee health and cognition

Original language description

The massive use of plastic has contributed to huge quantities of hazardous refuse at a global scale and represents one of the most prominent issues of the Anthropocene. Microplastics (MPs) have been detected in almost all environments and pose a potential threat to a variety of plant and animal species. Many studies have reported a variety of effects, from negligible to detrimental, of MPs to aquatic organisms. Conversely, much less is known about their effect on terrestrial biota, and particularly on animal behavior and cognition. We assessed the oral toxicity of polyethylene (PE) MPs at three different concentrations (0.5, 5, and 50 mg L−1), and at different timescales (1 day and 7 days of exposure) and tested for their effects on survival, food intake, sucrose responsiveness, habituation to sucrose and appetitive olfactory learning and memory in the honey bee Apis mellifera. We found that workers were not completely unaffected by acute and prolonged ingestion of this polymer. A significant effect of PE on bee mortality was found for the highest concentration but not for lower ones. PE affected feeding behavior in a concentration-dependent manner, with bees consuming more food than controls when exposed to low concentration PE. Regarding our behavioral and cognitive experiments, the high concentration PE was found to affect only bees’ ability to respond consistently to sucrose but not sucrose sensitivity, habituation to sucrose or learning and memory abilities, even for prolonged exposure to PE. While these last results may look somewhat encouraging, we discussed why caution is warranted before ruling out the possibility that PE particles at environmental concentrations are harmful to honey bees. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Environmental Pollution

ISSN

0269-7491

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

305

Issue of the periodical within the volume

neuvedeno

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

10

Pages from-to

nestrankovano

UT code for WoS article

000797039900003

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85128931351