DOI: 10.6086/d14x10
title: Reduced water negatively impacts social bee survival and productivity via shifts in floral nutrition

description: Pollinators provide a key ecosystem service vital for the survival and
 stability of the biosphere. Identifying factors influencing the
 plant-pollinator mutualism and pollinator management is necessary for
 maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Since healthy bee hives require
 substantial amounts of carbohydrates (nectar) and protein (pollen) from
 forage plants such as clover, we must assess how resources offered by
 plants change under limited water conditions in order to fully understand
 how drought modifies the pollination mutualism. Here we document how
 reduced water availability leads to decreased nectar quality and quantity
 and decreased protein quality of pollen. Furthermore, we provide
 conclusive evidence that these lower quality resources lead to decreased
 survival and productivity in both developing honey bees and bumble bees.
 The results emphasize the importance of the nutritional effects of reduced
 water on bees when predicting shifts of pollination mutualisms under
 climate change.
description: All plant data are for Tomcat clover (<em>Trifolium
 willdenovii</em>) grown in D-40 Deepots with UC Mix3 soil in a
 greenhouse with fertilized water and on one of two watering treatments:
 optimal and reduced (30% less). Optimal water conditions were assessed by
 determining how much water was required for the soil to be at field
 capacity. We raised one-day old honey bee larvae, 76
 microcolonies of <em>Bombus impatiens, </em>and four cull
 colonies of <em>B. impatiens</em> on artificial diets that
 represented the decreased nutritive quality of clover flowers when water
 was reduced by 30%. Please see main text for details. In short, for honey
 bees, The optimum water diet consisted of 53% (w/w) royal jelly, 6.5%
 sucrose, 3.1% glucose, 3.4% fructose and 34% water, while the reduced
 water diet was comprised of 47.6% royal jelly, 5.4% sucrose, 2.6% glucose,
 2.9% fructose and 41.5% water. For bumble bees, the optimum water diet
 consisted of 0.250 g pollen and a sugar solution of 29.4% sucrose, 13.5%
 glucose, 15.9% fructose and 41.2% water, while the reduced water diet
 included 0.225g pollen and a sugar solution of 24.8% sucrose, 11.4%
 glucose, 13.4% fructose and 50.6% water. All bees were maintained in the
 lab and monitored daily.
description: This workbook contains the raw data for the paper Wilson Rankin
 et al (2020) Reduced water negatively impacts social bee survival and
 productivity via shifts in floral nutrition. <em>Journal of Insect
 Science</em> All plant data are for Tomcat clover
 (<em>Trifolium willdenovii</em>) grown in D-40 Deepots with UC
 Mix3 soil in a greenhouse with fertilized water and on one of two watering
 treatments: optimal and reduced (30% less). Optimal water conditions were
 assessed by determining how much water was required for the soil to be at
 field capacity. 
 sheet name   data description dry.wt.whole.plant   dry mass for whole plants after experiment by treatment and plant ID phenology   days from scarification to flower by treatment and plant ID inflo.dat     total number of inflorescences (ie flowers) by treatment and plant ID seedset   Total.Florets, total.seeds, WEIGHT.OF.TOTAL.SEEDS.mg by infloresence.ID, treatment and plant ID nectar.raw   Total.volume.nectar.uL, uL.floret, uL.inflo, and BRIX by plant.ID and treatment pollen.raw   total.florets.sampled, mg.pollen.weight.Total, mg.pollen.weight.per.floret, and average protein concentration (ug.mL) by plant.ID and treatment bee.survival              Development time (from egg to adult emergence) in days, status, diet, weight at end of experiment, duration of pupation in days, survival time, survival status for all bees by species. For Bombus, microcolony ID and source colony are porvided for the microcolonies, whereas colony ID is provided for the full colony manipulations.