Bumblebee queen mortality along roads increase with traffic

Bumblebee size polymorphism and worker response to queen pheromone

Queen pheromones are chemical signals produced by reproductive individuals in social insect colonies. In many species they are key to the maintenance of reproductive division of labor, with workers beginning to reproduce individually once the queen pheromone disappears. Recently, a queen pheromone that negatively affects worker fecundity was discovered in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris, presen...

Estimation of bumblebee queen dispersal distances using sibship reconstruction method.

Dispersal ability is a key determinant of the propensity of an organism to cope with habitat fragmentation and climate change. Here we quantify queen dispersal in two common bumblebee species in an arable landscape. Dispersal was measured by taking DNA samples from workers in the spring and summer, and from queens in the following spring, at 14 sites across a landscape. The queens captured in t...

Traffic Noise Annoyance on Roads (tnar)

Noise is known as one of the most frequently reported negative environmental effects of traffic. At present, according to the current standards and calculation specifications, the impact of road traffic noise is represented by the A-weighted energy-equivalent sound level (LA,eq). This quantity does not account for the subjective annoyance of sound events as it is perceived by the affected perso...

[Increased mortality on the roads of Yugoslavia].

Ragweed pollen collected along high-traffic roads shows a higher allergenicity than pollen sampled in vegetated areas.

BACKGROUND Pollutants may affect pollen allergenicity and thus the prevalence of allergies. Although a few studies are available in literature, the connection between pollution and the allergenic potential of pollen has yet to be clearly defined. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of traffic-related pollution on the allergenicity of ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) polle...