Researchers in Hobart, Tasmania are attaching tiny sensors to honeybees to monitor their movements to better understand what is driving Colony Collapse Disorder.
Photo: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), Australia's national science agency, has fitted thousands of honeybees with tiny sensors as part of a world-first research program to monitor the insects and their environment. Five thousand sensors, measuring 2.5mm x 2.5 mm, are being fitted to the backs of honeybees in Hobart, Tasmania. How do they manage to attach them? The bees are refrigerated for a short time, which renders them immobile, allowing the sensors secured to their backs with an adhesive. Once removed from the cold conditions, the bees revive and return to their hives.

The research, lead by Dr. Paulo de Souza, aims to improve honeybee pollination and productivity, and better understand what is driving bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a condition decimating honey bee populations worldwide.

"Around one third of the food we eat relies on pollination, but honeybee populations around the world are crashing because of the dreaded Varroa mite and Colony Collapse Disorder," explains Dr. de Souza. Australia is currently free from both of those threats, he adds.

The study focus is looking at the role of honeybees to pollinate agricultural crops. A recent CSIRO study showed bee pollination in Faba beans can lead to a productivity increase of 17 percent. The research will also look at the impacts of agricultural pesticides on honeybees by monitoring insects that feed at sites with trace amounts of commonly used chemicals.

Michigan State's AgBioResearch program notes that most crops grown for their fruits (vegetables like squash, cucumber, tomato and eggplant), nuts, seeds, fiber (cotton, e.g.) and hay (alfalfa grown to feed livestock), require pollination by insects. The main insect pollinators, by far, are bees. Pollinating insects of course also play a vital role in maintaining natural plant communities and ensuring production of seeds in most flowering plants.

"Bees are social insects that return to the same point and operate on a very predictable schedule," explains Dr. de Souza. Any change in their behavior indicates a change in their environment. By tracking their movements, he says, the researchers we'll be able to quickly recognize when their activity shows variation and identify the cause. "This will help us understand how to maximize their productivity, as well as monitor for any biosecurity risks," he adds.

The researchers are working with the University of Tasmania, Tasmanian Beekeepers Association, local beekeepers in Hobart and fruit growers around the state.

Dr. de Souza says the next stage of the project is to reduce the size of the sensors to only 1mm, which would allow researchers to attach them to mosquitoes and fruit flies.