DOI: 10.5061/dryad.x95x69pgk
title: Misinformation, internet honey trading, and beekeepers drive a plant invasion

description: Biological invasions are a major human induced global change that is
 threatening global biodiversity by homogenizing the world’s fauna and
 flora. Species spread because humans have moved species across geographic
 boundaries and have changed ecological factors that structure ecosystems,
 such as nitrogen deposition, disturbance, etc. Many biological invasions
 are caused accidentally, as a byproduct of human travel and commerce
 driven product shipping. However, humans also have spread many species
 intentionally because of perceived benefits. Of interest is the role of
  the recent exponential growth in information exchange via
 internet social media in driving  biological invasions. To date,
 this has not been examined. Here we show that for one such invasive
 species, goldenrod, social networks spread misleading and incomplete
 information that is enhancing the spread of goldenrod invasions into new
 environments. We show that the notion of goldenrod honey as a “superfood”
 with unsupported healing properties is driving a demand that leads
 beekeepers to produce goldenrod honey. Social networks provide a forum for
 such information exchange and this is leading to further spread of
 goldenrod in many countries where goldenrod is not native, such as Poland.
 However, this informal social information exchange ignores laws that focus
 on preventing the further spread of invasive species and the strong
 negative effects that goldenrod has on native ecosystems, including floral
 resources that negatively impact honeybee performance. Thus,
 scientifically unsupported information on “superfoods” such as goldenrod
 honey that is disseminated through social internet networks has real world
 consequences such as increased goldenrod invasions into novel geographical
 regions which decreases native biodiversity.
description: <i>Global presence of
 invasive goldenrod</i> Data on
 goldenrod invasiveness (file: Global_data_Goldenrod_status_and
 planting.xlsx) were collected from literature cited in the Center for
 Agriculture and Bioscience International website
 (https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/50599) and our extensive search of
 literature on goldenrods. We illustrated the results on a map using QGIS
 open source software. <i>Global
 interest in goldenrod plants for apiculture </i><br>  We used
 Google Search to collect data on the number of internet records containing
 information about honey produced from goldenrod nectar in countries where
 the plant is not native, and added these results to the map (file:
 "Global_data_Goldenrod_status_and planting.xlsx, Fig. 1 in the
 manuscript). The Google Search tool allowed us to estimate the internet
 supply of information about this topic (file:
 International_interest_in_goldenrod.xlsx). The key phrase was ‘goldenrod
 honey’ and the language was adjusted for each region search; for example,
 for the UK we used English, for Germany German, for Hungary Hungarian,
 etc. The words were checked by native speakers or translated using the
 Google Translate tool, and the relevance of all translations was validated
 using Google Graphics. In addition, we checked all search results from the
 first five pages (50 items in total) in the Google Browser to locate all
 relevant records. We also checked the occurrence of the phrase ‘how to
 plant goldenrod for bees’ using the Google Search browser. The sentence is
 more complicated to translate and validate than just ‘goldenrod honey’.
 Thus, we used only English, German, Russian, and similar languages in
 relevant countries such as Ukraine and Belarus, and Hungarian, Romanian,
 and Polish, as native speakers. We checked the first 50 pages (if
 available) to find all relevant listings. For Europe, we excluded all
 results about native goldenrods, which are not used in apiculture because
 they occur at much lower abundances than introduced alien goldenrod
 species. There are no native goldenrod species in Africa, Australia, or
 Oceania. All internet searches were performed on 15–17 October
 2017. <i>Global availability of
 goldenrods in ecommerce in invaded countries</i>           We checked the
 availability and purchase of goldenrod seeds, seedlings, and roots on
 international and local internet platforms in countries where goldenrod
 has an ‘invasive’ status according to the Centre for Agriculture and
 Bioscience International (file: International_Goldenrod_ecommerce.xlsx).
 We used the following platforms: Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Allegro, and OLX.
 Search was performed on 27 May 2020. <i>Global
 availability of information about goldenrod honey as a superfood and its
 healing properties</i> We checked the
 abundance of information on the internet about the healing properties of
 goldenrod honey using the Google Search browser and various phrases about
 healing different ailments (file: Goldenrod_honey_properties.xlsx). Search
 performed on 26 May 2020. <i>Local interest in
 goldenrod plants for apiculture</i>             To increase data
 precision and completeness, we focussed on one specific country, Poland,
 where we used data from the biggest internet platforms, Allegro (www.allegro.pl)  and
 OLX (www.olx.pl). We
 searched both platforms for goldenrod honey availability, price, and
 purchase from 2008 to 2018 (file: Ecommerce_goldenrod_honey_Poland.xlsx).
 We also used internet tools such as Google Trends and the Google Search
 browser to closely examine beekeeper and customer interest in goldenrods
 (file: Google_Trends_goldenrod_honey_Poland.xlsx). Google Trends
 (https://trends.google.com/trends/) is a public web facility provided by
 Google Inc. that measures how often a particular search item is entered
 into Google Search browsers, relative to the total search volume. The
 trends provided by this tool estimate changes in searches for an item or
 phrase and are often used to examine temporal changes in socio-economic
 studies. To avoid biases, we set the ‘food’ filter, allowing searches to
 only find food-related items when searching for goldenrod honey, thereby
 avoiding searches for gardening plants. For Poland, we checked the Google
 Search browser for trends in available information on goldenrod honey as a
 healing superfood (file: Goldenrod_honey_properties.xlsx). We checked
 these trends for general healing properties and for kidney problems as an
 example. Using the Google Search browser, we also checked internet forums
 where beekeepers exchanging advice and knowledge, to check where they
 plant goldenrod for bees and if they have noted deteriorating influences
 on their honeybee colonies (file:
 Advices_where_to_plant_goldenrod_Poland.xlsx). Specifically, in forums for
 beekeepers, we searched for the number of posts per year and the number of
 people offering advice about planting goldenrod for bees. We noted the
 typical habitat most often recommended for planting this species. The
 forums were active from 2008 to 2018. <i>Avoiding
 bias in collecting sociological data from </i><i>the
 </i><i>internet</i> To collect
 sociological data on the interest of beekeepers in goldenrod, we used
 triangulation as the best advised method for collecting non-experimental
 data in social science. The method suggests using at least three different
 sources of data or to address at least three different questions about
 each researched topic. For this reason, we conducted our study globally
 and locally, using Google Search, Google Trends, and ecommerce portals,
 with several research questions. Our research was conducted according to
 the methods advised by Google Inc. to deal with the inaccuracy of Google
 Search results. We
 followed the official instructions provided by Google to
 improve the results. We used two filters officially advised by Google IT.
 The first was the “rc = 1” request parameter to
 request an accurate result count for up to 1 M documents (source of the
 advice: https://support.google.com/gsa/answer/2672285?hl=en). The second was r = 0, allowing for directory filtering (filtering documents coming from the same folder) and duplicate sniper filtering (if two documents have the same generated snippet, they will be filtered). Both filters were officially advised by Google: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33426045/how-to-get-an-accurate-m-value-from-the-google-search-appliance-api-with-php, and checked by programmers from the University of Queensland. However, neither of these two filters changed the results. <i>Seasonal changes in native food availability for honeybees</i> We used data from field surveys conducted in 2014 and 2015 to examine the abundance dynamics of flowering species in grasslands invaded by goldenrod and in two types of control grassland (file: Bee_abundance_and_resource_dynamics.xlsx). We chose 10 grasslands invaded by goldenrods, 10 control grasslands that had recently been set aside, and 10 control grasslands that were managed (cut twice a year in June/July and late August). In each grassland, five 16 m<sup>2</sup> quadrants were randomly placed. Plant species richness and flower abundance were estimated within these quadrants. Plant species were counted every two weeks starting in early April and ending at the beginning of November in both 2014 and 2015. During each survey, the flower abundance of each plant species was estimated as a categorical variable: 0, 1–10, 11–50, 51–100, 101–150, 151–200, 201–250, 251–300, 301–350, 351–400, and &gt;400 flowers/inflorescences per 16 m<sup>2</sup>. We compared flowering species dynamics from early spring to late summer in the goldenrod invaded grasslands and the abandoned and mown control grasslands within these quadrants. We also counted all honeybees that foraged in each plot during each plant survey. <i>Experiment on the lifespan of bees fed on goldenrod honey                                   </i> We experimentally measured the lifespans of honeybee workers fed on fresh goldenrod nectar (honey) and compared them with two control groups: workers fed on fresh honey from a mixture of native flowers and workers fed on sugar dissolved in water, which is typically used in honeybee experiments (file: Bee_survival_experiment.xlsx). The three treatments were stored under the same conditions for the same period. Both honey types and the control had 80% sugar content. We diluted them with water to 70% so that the treatments could be changed twice daily; otherwise, harmful pathogens such as fungus may have developed and influenced the results. All bees also had access to clean water. The water and honey were placed in Eppendorf tubes. We used five independent colonies that were not genetically related. We collected 150 bees from each colony. For each treatment, we assigned 50 random, just-hatched workers and kept them in small cages (a wood-frame cage, 13 × 9 cm and 5 cm high, with glass and steel mesh sides) and provided a small piece of bee comb. We noted the number of dead bees every day, over a 33-day period. We kept all the bees in the same conditions in climate chambers. The conditions resembled those in hives (34 °C, darkness, humidity 50–60%). The placement of the cages was changed randomly every day.
description: All data are in Excel files. Each file contains the
 "Description" sheet, where detailed explanation of variables is
 given.