INFLUENCE OF THE AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE SURROUNDING APIS MELLIFERA COLONIES ON THE PRESENCE OF GLYPHOSATE AND ITS METABOLITE AMPA IN HONEY

MEDICI, S.K.; MAGGI, M.D.; GALETTO, L.; IGLESIAS, M.R.

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Workshop; 8th LATIN AMERICAN PESTICIDE RESIDUE WORKSHOP; 2021

Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario de Panamá

During foraging flights, honey bees settled in agricultural ecosystems may encounterglyphosate residues on flowers of both cultivated and native plants growing in semi-naturalhabitats within the landscape. This product has been considered non-toxic to bees based onacute contact and oral toxicity tests (> 100 µg / per bee) performed mostly under labconditions; however, several authors have described various deleterious effects of thisherbicide on honeybee?s behavior and survival. The configuration and heterogeneity of thelandscape and the agricultural management in which the bee colonies are located, havedirect and indirect implications on the presence and survival of bees. In this work, we wereinterested to analyze the relationship between landscape configuration and the presence ofpesticides in honey. In particular, we tested the relationship between the presence ofglyphosate and AMPA residues in honey and some metrics of habitat configuration. Weexpect a higher presence of glyphosate and AMPA as the proportion of crop lands in thelandscape is increased and the connectivity of semi-natural habitats is decreased. A total of30 honey samples belonging to the 2019 and 2020 harvests were analyzed in various areasof the southeast of the province of Buenos Aires and a frequency of 50% of glyphosatepositivity was found in the analyzed simples meanwhile AMPA was found in 30% of thesamples using a method of analysis of residues of Glyphosate and its main metabolite ofdegradation to Aminophosphoric Acid (AMPA) in honey developed using UPLC MSMS. Weidentified a total of 24 different sites to test the relationships between habitat configurationand residues of pesticides in honey because six of the samples were obtained in the sameapiary (during the same of different season; see below). The range of values found in thesamples was between 2 ? 27,5 µg/kg for Glyphosate and 1,9 ? 18,1 µg/kg for AMPA.Themetrics for the near landscape (1000m ratio) surrounding the apiaries showed highercorrelations than those for the larger one (2225 m ratio), particularly with AMPA residues.Nevertheless, these correlations were weak and thus the amount of crop lands with industrialagriculture is not enough to clear explain the values of glyphosate and AMPA residuesdetected in the honey bee colonies. Based on the pesticide prevalence in the environment,as well as our findings of its presence in honey samples, we propose that detailed studies atthe apiary scale should be conducted in Argentina to determine if glyphosate is in fact acontributing driver to the colony losses. Geospatial analysis like the performed in this studycan help honey producers to estimate risks to pesticide exposure in landscapes withintensive agriculture.