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The Effects of Fungicides on Bumble Bee Colonies

Topic

  • Environmental Science
  • Human Population & Impacts
  • Conservation

Resource Type

  • Videos
  • Scientists at Work

Level

High School — GeneralHigh School — AP/IBCollege

Duration

00:06:25
Saved By
29 Users
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View in Spanish

Description

In this video, entomologist Shawn Steffan describes an experiment designed to study the effect of fungicides on bumble bee colonies.

Fungicides are routinely used in agriculture to protect crops from harmful fungi. Although harmless to the adult bumble bee, these fungicides appear to be having unintended negative consequences for bumble bee populations. How could chemicals that kill fungi be impacting bumble bees?

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Steffan discovered that the stored pollen and nectar that bumble bee larvae feed on is rich in yeast, a type of fungus. Based on this observation, he hypothesized that the use of fungicides could affect bumble bee food stores and ultimately the health of bumble bee colonies. In this video, he walks through an experiment designed to compare the sizes of bumble bee colonies that forage on flowering plants grown in the presence or absence of fungicides.

This video provides an example of designing a controlled experiment to collect data for testing a hypothesis and using data from research studies to guide the development of sustainable agricultural practices.  

An audio descriptive version of the film is available via our media player.

Key Terms

agriculture, controlled experiment, fungus, graph interpretation, scientific methodology, scientific process

Primary Literature

Steffan, Shawn A., Prarthana S. Dharampal, Luis Diaz-Garcia, Cameron R. Currie, Juan Zalapa, and Chris Todd Hittinger. “Empirical, Metagenomic, and Computational Techniques Illuminate the Mechanisms by which Fungicides Compromise Bee Health.” _Journal of Visualized Experiments_ 128 (2017): 54631. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5752386/

Terms of Use

Please see the Terms of Use for information on how this resource can be used.

Accessibility Level (WCAG compliance)

Video files meet criteria. Spanish files meet criteria.

Version History

Date Published 10.07.16
Date Updated 08.26.21

NGSS (2013)

HS-LS4.C

AP Biology (2019)

ENE-3, ENE-4, SYI-2

IB Biology (2016)

C.1, C.4

AP Environmental Science (2020)

Topic(s): 3.5, 5.6, 5.12, 5.14

IB Environmental Systems and Societies (2017)

3.1, 3.4

Vision and Change (2009)

CC5

Materials

HD (M4V) 229 MB
HD (WMV) 202 MB
SD (M4V) 56 MB
SD (WMV) 55 MB
Transcript (PDF) 121 KB
Spanish dub (MP4) 103 MB
Transcript - Español (PDF) 252 KB

Use This Resource With

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The Effects of Fungicides on Bumble Bee Colonies

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