Assessing nutritional variation in pollen: a unifying approach for the study of bee nutritional ecology
2022
Lau, Pierre | Lesne, Pierre | Grebenok, Robert J. | Rangel de Alvarenga Paes, Juliana | Behmer, Spencer T.
Poor nutrition and landscape changes are two top factors regularly cited for causing the decline of pollinator populations. However, what constitutes "poor nutrition" currently remains inadequately defined. Several key pollinators including most bees are true palynivores: the broad suite of macro- and micronutrients they require comes only from pollen. However, the nutritional content of different pollen types varies, which in turn impacts pollinator foraging behavior and nutrient regulation. Thus, the characterization of the multidimensional nutrient content of pollen is a critical first step to better understand pollinator health. However, the use of a wide range of analytical approaches to assess pollen nutritional content has complicated between-studies comparisons and blurs our understanding of pollinator nutrition. In the current study we first reviewed different methods used to estimate pollen protein and lipid content, two important macronutrients for pollinator health. We uncovered significant inconsistencies between methods and experimentally revealed these biases using Brassica and Rosa pollen. Second, we performed a carbohydrate assay and an elemental analysis on these pollen types to broadly characterize pollen nutrient content. We use our collective data to propose a unifying protocol for the analysis of pollen nutritional content for the study of pollinator health.
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