Papers by Sergio Gil Lebrero
Las abejas en el escenario del cambio climático
Archivos De Zootecnia, 2015
Varroa destructor is the main health problem in Western beekeeping. The quantification of this mi... more Varroa destructor is the main health problem in Western beekeeping. The quantification of this mite in beehives is an important factor in veterinary inspections and for beekeepers to apply treatments, monitor their success, or assess varroa mite control efforts. In this paper were evaluate different diagnostic methods to quantify mite population levels in beehives: i) mites dislodged with sugar powder and with ethyl alcohol from adult bees samples brushed from honey combs and from brood combs, ii) mites removed from worker brood cells and iii) mite fallen on a screening bottom board for a period of four days. Recording the number of mites that fell naturally onto the screened bottom board was the only method that showed a significant correlation with the total number of varroa in beehives. Quantification in adult bee samples or bee brood samples can only be used for indicative diagnoses. Sugar powder only dislodge a third of the mites from adult bees.
Los pesticidas y su efecto toxicológico en las abejas
Colmenas con fondos de malla en clima cálido: ensayos preliminares para reducir la población de Varroa destructor
Vida apícola: revista de …, 2011
Información del artículo Colmenas con fondos de malla en clima cálido: ensayos preliminares para ... more Información del artículo Colmenas con fondos de malla en clima cálido: ensayos preliminares para reducir la población de Varroa destructor.
Study of the colony-environment relationship in domestic bee populations (Apis mellifera L.) by implementing electronic remote monitoring systems
La polinización es la aportación principal de la abeja doméstica (Apis mellifera L.) a los ecosis... more La polinización es la aportación principal de la abeja doméstica (Apis mellifera L.) a los ecosistemas terrestres, y además resulta fundamental para el éxito de muchos cultivos. Sin las abejas podría estar seriamente comprometida la viabilidad de muchas especies vegetales. Sin embargo, las poblaciones de abejas están sufriendo importantes pérdidas, decreciendo debido a diferentes factores no bien identificados, aunque el cambio climático ha sido propuesto como uno de ellos. Por tanto, entender cómo responden las abejas a los nuevos escenarios climáticos es esencial para hacerle frente, especialmente en las zonas bioclimáticas más sensibles, como es el área mediterránea. En este sentido, es necesario conseguir toda la información posible sobre cómo interactúan las abejas con las condiciones ambientales, y cómo son capaces de regular estas condiciones en el interior de la colmena, empleando además métodos lo menos intrusivos posibles, evitando así modificar las condiciones naturales y...
Honey Bee Colonies Remote Monitoring
Sensors, 2017
Research in Veterinary Science, 2021
Sustainability, 2020
In this study, the Wbee Sensor System was used to record data from 10 Iberian beehives for two ye... more In this study, the Wbee Sensor System was used to record data from 10 Iberian beehives for two years in southern Spain. These data were used to identify potential conditioning climatic factors of the internal regulatory behavior of the hive and its weight. Categorical principal components analysis (CATPCA) was used to determine the minimum number of those factors able to capture the maximum percentage of variability in the data recorded. Then, categorical regression (CATREG) was used to select the factors that were linearly related to hive internal humidity, temperature and weight to issue predictive regression equations in Iberian bees. Average relative humidity values of 51.7% ± 10.4 and 54.2% ± 11.7 were reported for humidity in the brood nest and in the food area, while average temperatures were 34.3 °C ± 1.5 in the brood nest and 29.9 °C ± 5.8 in the food area. Average beehive weight was 38.2 kg ± 13.6. Some of our data, especially those related to humidity, contrast with previ...
Science of The Total Environment, 2018
• Climate change is an important risk for honey bee and the apiculture. • Apiculture of precision... more • Climate change is an important risk for honey bee and the apiculture. • Apiculture of precision is an advance for bee colony understanding. • Dry weather and high temperatures generate important stress for bees. • Climate change is a threat for beekeeping productions.
Chemosphere, Jan 19, 2018
In this study, honeybee colonies were monitored in a field study conducted on sunflowers grown fr... more In this study, honeybee colonies were monitored in a field study conducted on sunflowers grown from seeds treated with the systemic neonicotinoids thiamethoxam or clothianidin. This field trial was carried out in different representative growing areas in Spain over a beekeeping season. The health and development of the colonies was assessed by measuring factors that have a significant influence on their strength and overwintering ability. The parameters assessed were: colony strength (adult bees), brood development, amount of pollen and honey stores and presence and status of the queen. The concentration of residues (clothianidin and thiamethoxam) in samples of beebread and in adult bees was at the level of ng.g; in the ranges of 0.10-2.89 ng gand 0.05-0.12 ng g; 0.10-0.37 ng gand 0.01-0.05 ng g, respectively. Multivariate models were applied to evaluate the interaction among factors. No significant differences were found between the honeybee colonies of the different treatment grou...
Implementation of an electronic system to monitor the thermoregulatory capacity of honeybee colonies in hives with open-screened bottom boards
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2015
Electronic systems are interesting for beekeeping update.Bee colonies monitoring is essential to ... more Electronic systems are interesting for beekeeping update.Bee colonies monitoring is essential to understand the response of bees against threats such as diseases or climate change.The records inside bee hives are important to design conservation strategies.Bees are able to thermoregulate inside the hive in very different conditions.Screening bottom boards are useful for Varroa control and they do not provoke problems of thermoregulation. Electronic systems are not widely used for measuring biological variables in beehives despite the importance that honeybees have for both the environment and humans. A better understanding of bee colonies is needed in order to prevent certain dangers that threaten the bee population. In this study, we have developed an electronic system based on the Arduino Open Hardware platform, to which we have added temperature and humidity sensors to adapt the system to the particular conditions of beehive management. The system has been used to record changes in temperature and humidity inside hives and assess bees' thermoregulation adaptability within colonies in hives with opened-screened bottom boards; an interesting management tool for controlling the harmful Varroa destructor mite as compared to beehives with conventional closed bottom boards. The results revealed that bee colonies were able to thermoregulate in hives with open anti-Varroa bottom boards to the same degree as those in conventional bottom board hives even under winter conditions in a mediterranean climate, thus indicating that there are no additional risks associated with the use of open-screened bottom board models.
Sensors, 2016
Bees are very important for terrestrial ecosystems and, above all, for the subsistence of many cr... more Bees are very important for terrestrial ecosystems and, above all, for the subsistence of many crops, due to their ability to pollinate flowers. Currently, the honey bee populations are decreasing due to colony collapse disorder (CCD). The reasons for CCD are not fully known, and as a result, it is essential to obtain all possible information on the environmental conditions surrounding the beehives. On the other hand, it is important to carry out such information gathering as non-intrusively as possible to avoid modifying the bees' work conditions and to obtain more reliable data. We designed a wireless-sensor networks meet these requirements. We designed a remote monitoring system (called WBee) based on a hierarchical three-level model formed by the wireless node, a local data server, and a cloud data server. WBee is a low-cost, fully scalable, easily deployable system with regard to the number and types of sensors and the number of hives and their geographical distribution. WBee saves the data in each of the levels if there are failures in communication. In addition, the nodes include a backup battery, which allows for further data acquisition and storage in the event of a power outage. Unlike other systems that monitor a single point of a hive, the system we present monitors and stores the temperature and relative humidity of the beehive in three different spots. Additionally, the hive is continuously weighed on a weighing scale. Real-time weight measurement is an innovation in wireless beehive-monitoring systems. We designed an adaptation board to facilitate the connection of the sensors to the node. Through the Internet, researchers and beekeepers can access the cloud data server to find out the condition of their hives in real time.
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Papers by Sergio Gil Lebrero