Pollen diversity in honey from a Central European metropolis
- Author(s)
- Karen Kölzer, Alexandra Ribarits, Josef Mayr, Karin Weyermair, Johannes Martin Bouchal, Martina Weber
- Abstract
Urban beekeeping has become a popular trend in many cities worldwide. Green spaces such as parks, private gardens, and road verges provide pollinators with diverse floral resources. Pollen analysis with light microscopy is a valuable tool to identify foraging plants of honeybees and determine honey’s botanical and geographical origin. However, urban areas, with their high diversity of ornamental, non-native plants, pose a specific challenge in authenticity checks. Because they are also exceedingly affected by climate warming, many municipalities have started using adapted planting regimes to adapt to heat and drought.
To characterise the “urban”, pollen in honey from eighteen apiaries across Vienna, Austria was microscopically analysed over three consecutive years. Pollen grains were counted out to 500 per sample to determine the relative abundances of each pollen type. Differences in the pollen spectra were qualitatively and quantitatively examined according to year, extraction time and extent of urban built-up area within honeybees’ typical 3 km flight radius.
A total of 202 plant taxa could be identified, of which 48 % to genus level and 25 % to species level. The median number of pollen types per sample was 46. Overall, out of 71 identified ornamental plant taxa, 41 were non-native. Woody species were major contributors of pollen and nectar for urban honeybees, including the invasive Ailanthus altissima, the predominant pollen type in 15 out of 50 samples. Other non-native trees important for mass foraging included Gleditsia triacanthos, Sophora japonica, Koelreuteria paniculata and Liriodendron tulipifera.
This research evaluates bee-friendly municipal and private planting regimes in urban areas. The results suggest potential synergies between climate-adaptive taxa, pollinator ecology, and food security in cities.- Organisation(s)
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research
- External organisation(s)
- AGES - Österreichische Agentur für Gesundheit und Ernährungssicherheit
- Pages
- 43-44
- Publication date
- 2024
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 106008 Botany, 106049 Ultrastructure research
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 2 - Zero Hunger, SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 13 - Climate Action
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/b60b5255-6c8e-4ba4-aa78-9baacdd51abb