Options for mitigating multi-stressor interactions on managed bees in European agricultural landscapes
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Managed bees provide valuable pollination services to a wide range of European crops yet they face multiple, interacting stressors including pesticides, pathogens and poor nutrition. Despite incomplete evidence, there is an urgent need to identify effective options to mitigate these stressors. Using a modified Delphi process, 21 experts ranked 29 response options across four case studies. They assessed (a) the response options ability to effectively mitigate pesticide exposure in combination with either poor nutrition or parasite load for either Apis mellifera , Bombus terrestris or Osmia bicornis and (b) the overall feasibility of implementing the response option. The scoring identified perceived effective mitigation responses, that could be prioritised to benefit multiple pollinator species facing different interacting stressors. They included flower patch creation, rewarding farmers for pollinator friendly practices, reducing spray application frequency and reducing spray drift. We also highlight ‘feasibility priorities’, where effective mitigation responses are only feasible to implement with additional targeted support. Maximising the value of currently available evidence, in combination with expert knowledge, we demonstrate a structured decision-support approach for prioritising perceived effective responses. This approach can provide evidence to help support pollinator policy and management, by bridging the current knowledge gap we have around the impacts of interacting stressors on pollinators and how to best mitigate these.
Source: Scientific Reports
Authors: Bryony K. Willcox, Deepa Senapathi, Mark J. F. Brown, Michael P. D. Garratt, Tom D. Breeze, Anne Alix, Matthew Allen, Pilar De la Rúa, Konstantin Gospodinov, Chris Hartfield, Kjell Ivarsson, Christian Maus, David McDowell, Denis Michez, Paulo Mielgo, Francesco Nazzi, Carmen Padurean, Robert J. Paxton, Jeffery S. Pettis, Jens Pistorius, Jane C. Stout, Tom Strobl, Verena Strobl, Annette Van Oystaeyen, Evelyn Underwood, Simon G. Potts
Institutions: University of Reading, University of Cambridge, Corteva (United States), Universidad de Murcia, International Union for Conservation of Nature, National Farmers Union, Bayer (Germany), University of Mons, University of Udine, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Julius Kühn-Institut, Trinity College Dublin, University of Bern, Institute for European Environmental Policy
Language: English
Subfield: Insect Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Zero hunger, Life on land
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,690
OpenAlex ID: W7221362035