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Honey Bee Population Dynamics and Neonicotinoids

Description
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are responsible for pollinating nearly 80\% of all pollinated plants, meaning humans depend on honey bees to pollinate many staple crops. The success or failure of a colony is vital to global food production. There are various complex factors that can contribute to a colony's failure,…

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are responsible for pollinating nearly 80\% of all pollinated plants, meaning humans depend on honey bees to pollinate many staple crops. The success or failure of a colony is vital to global food production. There are various complex factors that can contribute to a colony's failure, including pesticides. Neonicotoids are a popular pesticide that have been used in recent times. In this study we concern ourselves with pesticides and its impact on honey bee colonies. Previous investigations that we draw significant inspiration from include Khoury et Al's \emph{A Quantitative Model of Honey Bee Colony Population Dynamics}, Henry et Al's \emph{A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees}, and Brown's \emph{ Mathematical Models of Honey Bee Populations: Rapid Population Decline}. In this project we extend a mathematical model to investigate the impact of pesticides on a honey bee colony, with birth rates and death rates being dependent on pesticides, and we see how these death rates influence the growth of a colony. Our studies have found an equilibrium point that depends on pesticides. Trace amounts of pesticide are detrimental as they not only affect death rates, but birth rates as well.
ContributorsSalinas, Armando (Author) / Vaz, Paul (Thesis director) / Jones, Donald (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05

Mathematically Modelling Population Dynamics of the Honeybee Infected with Varroa destructor and the Related Viruses

Description
The decline of honeybee colonies around the world has been linked to the presence of the Varroa destructor, a mite acting as a virus vector for the Acute Bee Paralysis Virus. We developed a model of the infestation of the Apis melliifera honeybee colony by the Acute Bee Paralysis Virus,…

The decline of honeybee colonies around the world has been linked to the presence of the Varroa destructor, a mite acting as a virus vector for the Acute Bee Paralysis Virus. We developed a model of the infestation of the Apis melliifera honeybee colony by the Acute Bee Paralysis Virus, which is transmitted by the parasitic Varroa destructor. This is a four dimensional system of nonlinear ODE's for healthy and virus infected bees, total number of mites in the colony and number of mites that carry the virus. The Acute Bee Paralysis Virus can be transmitted between infected and uninfected bees, infected mite to adult bee, infected bee to phoretic mite, and reproductive mites to bee brood. This model is studied with analytical techniques deriving the conditions under which the bee colony can fight off an Acute Bee Paralysis Virus epidemic.
ContributorsDavis, Talia Lasandra (Author) / Kang, Yun (Thesis director) / Lanchier, Nicolas (Committee member) / Moore, Marianne (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12