Third-party funding at an all-time high

Goethe University raises around €233 million in additional funding / Increase in international fundraising particularly high

Business Announcement

GOETHE UNIVERSITY FRANKFURT

At €71.4 million, the largest single source of public third-party research funding was the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). Projects funded by the federal and state governments rose from €45.2 million to €52.2 million in 2022, representing a year-on-year increase of 15 percent. Funding for cutting-edge research projects by the state of Hesse alone amounted to €18.5 million. That figure also includes funding for three cluster projects supported by the state of Hesse ahead of the application for the German federal and state governments’ Excellence Strategy.  

Particularly gratifying within the international context is the fact that the projects funded by the European Union (EU) increased by almost half to a volume of €27.2 million. All disciplines were able to attract new EU funding: Three ERC grants – highly competitive individual funding from the European Research Council – and three new European collaborative projects under Goethe University’s leadership resulted in a substantial increase in acquisitions.

Third-party funding from private sources totaled almost €60 million, up 22 percent. Of these, donations alone increased by 10 percent and came in at €10.3 million. Industry and legally independent foundations increased their funding by 35 percent to €25.6 million.

"The new record level of third-party funding is a testimony to Goethe University’s research strength and innovative power, as well as its increasing internationality. After all, the largest increase in third-party funding in 2022 came in against strong international competition in EU projects," says Goethe University President Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff. "I would like to congratulate not only all our university researchers on this success, but also all employees who contribute to these scientific achievements."

The general increase in third-party funding at Goethe University can be attributed to a large number of newly acquired small and large projects. Examples include the two newly launched DFG Collaborative Research Centers (Sonderforschungsbereich, SFB) in the life sciences – "Membrane-associated protein assemblies, machineries and supercomplexes " (SFB 1507) and "Damage control by the stroma-vascular compartment" (SFB 1531) – as well as the newly established research unit (Forschungsgruppe 5417) on: "Translational polytrauma research to provide diagnostic and therapeutic tools for improving outcome". In the humanities and social sciences, the Academy for Islam in Research and Society (AIWG) was able to successfully commence its second funding period.

Goethe University’s total budget came in at about €764.5 million in 2022.

Surgeons must tackle three global health challenges to save lives

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Despite significant advances over the last 30 years, surgical research is still limited to comparing the benefit of one technique over another. It can be founded on assumptions that a new device or approach is always better - leading to poorly evaluated devices and procedures having negative effects on patients.

Writing in The Lancet, experts from the NIHR Global Health Research Unit for Global Surgery GlobalSurg Collaborative – a programme backed by funding from the NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) – propose three priority areas for surgery:

• Access, equity, and public health must be recognised as crucial issues for surgery.

In 2015, five billion people did not have access to safe and affordable surgical care[1]. Of those who did, 33 million individuals faced catastrophic health expenditure in payment for surgery and anaesthesia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, over 28 million cases of elective surgery are likely to have been cancelled. Surgery has a key role in addressing the most important and growing global health challenges, such as trauma, congenital anomalies, safe childbirth, and non-communicable diseases.

• Inclusion and diversity must improve in both surgical research and the profession.

Women, minoritised groups, and patients from low-income and middle-income countries remain under-represented in clinical practice and major research work. Advancing inclusion and diversity will ensure a research agenda that delivers pragmatic, simple, and context-specific research that reflects the needs of all patients.

• Climate change is the greatest global health threat facing the world.

Surgical theatres are some of the most energy and resource intense areas of a hospital. Surgical practice relies on many single-use, non-biodegradable products as well as anaesthetic gases that have a large environmental footprint. Moving towards net-zero operating practices could reduce health-sector carbon emissions and allow surgeons and policy makers to reassess how surgery fits into a wider health system.

Comment co-author Dmitri Nepogodiev, from the University of Birmingham, said: “Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, once described surgical research as ‘a comic opera performance’. That was in 1996 and things have changed significantly since then.

“However, truly improving lives requires surgical researchers to use the next quarter of a century to tackle the most pressing questions on equity and access, the role of surgery in public health, and sustainability.

“Despite the problems of large waiting lists and an economic squeeze on health systems, surgeons must focus on these priority areas - placing surgery as a leader in medical specialties and demonstrating its value as a fundamental element of universal health care.”

The experts note that large, randomised controlled trials with well-defined endpoints are now more usual in surgical research, whilst exploration into the placebo effect, has led to a fundamental re-examination of the benefits of some surgical procedures and whether they benefit patients at all.

Surgeons and anaesthetists have developed successful international collaborative research efforts that have enabled rapid recruitment of participants and globally relevant studies and trials, while following internationally set standards of clinical trial practice.  Surgeons can now provide reliable answers to crucial questions in operative surgery, and their research has improved patient care and resource use in health systems.

ENDS

For more information, please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0) 121 414 8254 or  +44 (0)782 783 2312 or t.moran@bham.ac.uk. For out-of-hours enquiries, please call +44 (0) 7789 921 165.

Notes to Editors

• The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.
• ‘Surgical research—comic opera no more’ - Jessamy Bagenal, Naomi Lee, Adesoji O Ademuyiwa, Dmitri Nepogodiev, Antonio Ramos-De la Medina, Bruce Biccard, Marie Carmela Lapitan, and Wangari Waweru-Siika is published in The Lancet.
• Participating institutions include the University of Birmingham; Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria; Hospital Español de Veracruz, Mexico; Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, South Africa; University of the Philippines Manila and Philippine General Hospital, Manila; Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya; and Teaching Hospital, Tamale, Ghana.

About the National Institute for Health and Care Research

The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. We do this by:

•         Funding high quality, timely research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care;

•         Investing in world-class expertise, facilities and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services;

•         Partnering with patients, service users, carers and communities, improving the relevance, quality and impact of our research;

•         Attracting, training and supporting the best researchers to tackle complex health and social care challenges;

•         Collaborating with other public funders, charities and industry to help shape a cohesive and globally competitive research system;

•         Funding applied global health research and training to meet the needs of the poorest people in low- and middle-income countries.

 

NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low- and middle-income countries is principally funded through UK Aid from the UK government.

 

 

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[1] The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery 2030

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JOURNAL

The Lancet

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Surgical research—comic opera no more

When pigeons dream

Neuroscience

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RUHR-UNIVERSITY BOCHUM

 

IMAGE: PIGEONS ALSO DREAM WHILE THEY SLEEP. RESEARCHERS HAVE OBSERVED THEM DOING SO. view more 

CREDIT: © RUB, MARQUARD

During sleep, our brain undergoes a complex set of processes to ensure we wake up feeling refreshed. In humans, the different phases of sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep, are associated with distinct changes in physiology, brain activity, and cognition. For instance, during REM sleep, our brain is very active and we experience our most vivid, bizarre, and emotional dreams. During non-REM sleep, the brain is metabolically less active and clears out waste products by flushing cerebral spinal fluid through the brain’s ventricles – the interconnected chambers that surround the structures of the brain – and then through the brain. This process supposedly helps the body to remove harmful protein deposits from the brain, like those associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease.

What happens in a pigeon’s brain during sleep?

The question of whether similar processes also take place in birds has remained unresolved until now. “The last common evolutionary ancestor of birds and mammals dates back about 315 million years, to the early days of land vertebrates,” says Professor Onur Güntürkün, head of the Biopsychology Department at Ruhr University Bochum. “Yet the sleep patterns in birds are remarkably similar to those in mammals, including both REM and non-REM phases.”

To find out what exactly happens when birds sleep, the researchers used infrared video cameras and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe and record the sleeping and wakeful states of 15 pigeons specially trained to sleep under these experimental conditions.

The video recordings shed light on the sleep phases in the birds. “We were able to observe whether one or both eyes were open or closed, and to track eye movements and changes in pupil size through the pigeons’ transparent eyelids during sleep,” explains Mehdi Behroozi from the Bochum team. Simultaneously, the fMRI recordings provided information about brain activation and the flow of cerebral spinal fluid in the ventricles.

Dreams of flying

“During REM sleep, we observed strong activity in brain regions responsible for visual processing, including in those areas that analyze the movement of a pigeon’s surroundings during flight,” says Mehdi Behroozi. The team also noticed activity in the areas that process signals from the body, especially from the wings. “Based on these observations, we think that birds, just like humans, dream during REM sleep, and might be experiencing flight in their dreams,” adds Mehdi Behroozi.

Additionally, the scientists noticed activation of a particular brain area known as the amygdala during these phases. “This suggests that if birds experience something similar to our human dreams, pigeons’ dreams might include emotions as well,” says Gianina Ungurean from the Avian Sleep Group at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the birds’ pupils contract rapidly during REM sleep, like they do during courtship or aggressive behaviors while awake, as recently demonstrated by Gianina Ungurean and colleagues.

Washing out the day’s dust

Like in humans, the flow of cerebral spinal fluid through ventricles increases during non-REM sleep in pigeons. However, the team discovered for the first time, in any animal, that the flow diminished dramatically during REM sleep. “We think that the increased flood of blood into the brain during REM sleep, which supports the elevated brain activity, might block the cerebral spinal fluid from moving from the ventricles into the brain,” explains Niels Rattenborg, head of the Avian Sleep Group. “This suggests that REM sleep and its functions might come at the expense of waste removal from the brain.”

However, the scientists are also entertaining the possibility that REM sleep contributes to waste removal in unexpected ways. “At the onset of REM sleep, the influx of blood increases vessel diameter. This might force cerebral spinal fluid that entered the space during non-REM sleep to flow into the brain tissue, and enhance the outflow of fluids carrying waste products,” says Gianina Ungurean.

The researchers speculate that the process of cleaning the brain during sleep may be especially crucial for birds. Since their brains have a higher density of neurons in comparison to mammals, the removal of waste products may require more efficient – or more frequent – flushing cycles. As birds experience more and shorter REM phases during sleep than mammals, the associated frequent surge of blood might help to keep their densely packed brains free of harmful waste products.

Tell us about your dreams!

In the future, the team plans to explore REM sleep’s potential role in waste removal. In addition, they are thinking about ways to learn about the content of a pigeon’s dream. “We hope to train birds to report if and what they just saw upon awakened from REM sleep. That would be an essential step towards establishing whether they dream,” explains Gianina Ungurean. But even without a detailed dream analysis, the new findings already help us to better understand the role of sleep, in birds as well as in humans. They highlight the importance of sleep in maintaining a healthy brain and preventing cognitive decline – and they also imply that dreaming has a very long history.

Cooperation partners

The study was conducted by the Bochum Biopsychology team as well as researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behaviour, the Neurophysiology Department at Ruhr University Bochum and the Université Claude Bernard Lyon.

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-38669-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Wide-spread brain activation and reduced CSF flow during avian REM sleep

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

5-Jun-2023

Factors fomenting Bellandur lake’s infamous foam

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE (IISC)

 

IMAGE: FOAM BUILDUP AT MAIN OUTLET AFTER HEAVY RAIN view more 

CREDIT: CHANAKYA HN

The mystery of the unpredictable and heavy foaming in Bengaluru’s Bellandur lake has baffled scientists, regulators and citizens. Several theories have been put forth, and control measures taken, yet the foam continues to form year after year. A team from the Centre for Sustainable Technologies (CST), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has been monitoring this foam continuously for the last four years in order to unravel this mystery.  

One of the reasons why the foaming has puzzled scientists is because it counterintuitively increases only after heavy rains, which are supposed to dilute pollutants in the lake that may be causing the foaming. In a study published in Science of the Total Environment, the researchers have uncovered the reason behind this peculiarity.  

The team highlights three factors that are key to this foaming. The first is untreated sewage that enters the lake. Because the lake is large, the sewage takes 10-15 days to disperse through the lake; during this time, a part of the organic material gets degraded in the absence of oxygen and settles down as sludge. As more and more sewage flows through the lake, surfactants in the sewage do not decompose and instead get loosely attached to the settled sludge, gradually increasing in concentration – in some cases, up to 200 times the original concentration entering the lake, points out  Chanakya HN, Chief Research Scientist at CST and one of the authors of the study. “Imagine adding one full scoop of washing powder into a bucket of water; it will definitely foam given the right conditions,” he explains.

The second factor is heavy rainfall that brings in large quantities of run-off from the city into the lake overnight. This high-volume inflow appears to churn up the surfactant-laden sludge, dislodge the accumulated surfactant from the sludge, and bring it back into solution, making it ready to foam. Deep inside the lake itself, there is little foam, because air bubbles do not form. However, as the water level in the lake rises due to rains, the excess water containing large concentrations of the surfactants spills over into the lake’s outlet to depths as high as 25 feet, trapping air bubbles which turn into foam. “This is an important phenomenon that converts the surfactant-laden water into foam,” says Lakshminarayana Rao, Associate Professor at CST and one of the authors.  

In addition to these two factors, the researchers also suggest that suspended solids containing certain bacteria might be responsible for foam formation and stability – the mechanisms involved need to be validated through further experiments.  

To study the foam formation, the researchers collected water samples from the lake, analysed various parameters, and recreated a lab model to track the changes in chemical composition of the surfactants across different regions of the lake as well as at different times of the year. “I had to go to the lake every month over the years to collect water and foam samples, and conduct experiments on them,” says Reshmi Das, PhD student at CST and first author of the study. She took the help of officials from the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to collect the samples. 

Recent analysis by the team also suggests that a single type of surfactant commonly used in most of the household washing powders and shampoos plays a dominant role in driving this foaming.  

In a typical sewage treatment plant, these surfactants are subject to biodegradation and most of them are removed. The authors propose that stopping the entry of untreated sewage into the lake is crucial to prevent the build-up of surfactants and sludge, their churning, and the resulting foaming at the outfall. They also suggest that wherever this is not immediately possible, removing the accumulated sludge in the polluted lakes – at least before the rains – as well as proper disposal of it can help address this burning issue.

    

The stable foam travels along a 10m deep valley up to a few kilometres before being dispersed

CREDIT

Chanakya HN

JOURNAL

Science of The Total Environment

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164019 

ARTICLE TITLE

Unravelling the reason for seasonality of foaming in sewage-fed urban lakes

A study analyzes the competition between species of the fungus that causes olive anthracnose

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS WHO CARRIED OUT THE STUDY view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA

After analyzing the relationships between the dominant species of Colletotrichum in Spain and Portugal, a study by the Department of Agronomy at the UCO suggests that pathogens, once established, are difficult to displace, even by other more competitive ones.

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Olive anthracnose is known in the field as 'soapy olive', alluding to the appearance ofits infected fruit, which ends up rotting. It is the most prevalent disease affecting olive trees, as it reduces harvests and has a negative impact on the quality of oil, causing significant economic losses.

Olive anthracnose is caused by different species of the genus Colletotrichum (to date, 18 species of this fungus have been identified as causal agents of the disease). In each olive-growing region there is a dominant Colletotrichum species, and many secondary species. For example, in Spain the dominant species is C. godetiae, which affects the susceptible variety 'Hojiblanca', which is very widespread in the country; while in Portugal C. nymphaeae stands out, affecting the 'Galega Vulgar'cultivar, which is very widespread in Portugal. The question is, what competitive relationships lead some species to dominate some regions and not others? Do they ″specialize″ more in a particular cultivar?

In search of answers, a team at the University of Cordoba’s María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence, Department of Agronomy (DAUCO),studied the relationships between these two species of Colletotrichum that cause anthracnose,to better understand their behavior and have more tools to deal with the disease.

To do so, "we carried out tests of isolates in Petri dishes with a mixture of spores of both species, testing in a medium enriched in carbon, and another that was poorer in it, to see which species dominated over the other, and if it had to do with the medium," explains researcher María Teresa García, the first author of the study. In all the tests, the C. godetiae species displaced C. nymphaeae, even if the percentage of spores in the initial inoculation was only 5% of C. godetiae versus 95% of C. nymphaeae. That is, even starting from a spore quantity disadvantage, this species managed to displace the other anyway.

Continuing the trials, they went on to use the combination of spores to inoculate olives of two cultivars susceptible to the pathogen (Hojiblanca, a characteristic variety of Andalusia; and Galega Vulgar, a dominant variety in Portugal), where the pattern was repeated: C. godetiae showed a greater competitive capacity and partially displaced the species C. nymphaeae. These results occurred in both cultivars, so it was ruled out that each was specialized in affecting one cultivar.

"We were surprised by these results, since it is logical that there would be a specialization in a region’s majority cultivar, or that there would be some characteristic allowing this fungus to dominate in Spain, with the other one on the margins, and the other way around in Portugal," stated researcher Juan Moral, coordinator of the study.

The results of the analysis of the relationship between the two species, both in Petri dishes and in fruit, regardless of cultivar, show that C. godetiae is much more competitive than the other species. In addition, this species was much more resistant to copper, which is the major fungicide in the olive orchards of both countries. How, then, can we explain that the most competitive species is not the dominant one in a region as close-by as Portugal?

"It is difficult to explain why C. godetiae no displaces C. nymphaeae in Portugal, according to the classical theory of competitive ecology" observes Moral. "However, it could also be due to what is known in ecology as the 'priority effect′;that is, when a species is established in a niche and becomes strong it is very difficult to displace it."Other doubts that the researchers have are whether this change is occurring ("we see a still picture of the population") or whether other factors (capacity to affect adventitious plants) have an influence on it.

This analysis, in addition to more thorough knowledge of the relationships between species,which will allow us, in the future, to know which majority populations are displacing others, and to issue better recommendations in the selection of fungicides, an efficient protocol is also obtained to simulate cycles of interaction between Colletotrichum species not just in olives, but also in other fruits.

Garcia-Lopez, M.T., Serrano, M.S., Camiletti, B.X. et al. Study of the competition between Colletotrichum godetiae and C. nymphaeae, two pathogenic species in olive. Sci Rep 13, 5344 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-32585-6 

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-023-32585-6 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Study of the competition between Colletotrichum godetiae and C. nymphaeae, two pathogenic species in olive

Researchers identify genetic makeup of new strains of West Nile

This study shows the variety of strains in circulation and what mosquitoes may be carrying as we head into summer

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

UConn researchers identified the genetic makeup of strains of West Nile virus found in an alpaca and a crow.

These findings were published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

In 2021, eight cases of West Nile virus were brought to the CVMDL for diagnosis – seven birds, both domestic and wild – and one alpaca.

“We decided to pursue some research avenues through these diagnostic cases because we had an interesting cohort of West Nile cases that had come through that fall,” says Natalie Tocco ’23 (CAHNR), a resident in anatomic pathology the Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science.

Of the eight cases, the alpaca from Massachusetts and a crow from Connecticut had the highest amount of virus in their systems at the time of diagnosis.

Focusing on these two cases, the researchers were interested in seeing if there were genetic differences between the viruses because they occurred in different species in different states.

After sequencing the complete genomes of the viruses, the researchers compared them to existing data. They found that the West Nile virus in the crow was similar to the virus identified in a mosquito and birds in New York between 2007 and 2013. The virus found in the alpaca resembled West Nile viruses found in mosquitos in New York, Texas, and Arizona between 2012 and 2016.

“[These findings] show the variety of the strains that are circulating and that can really alter what we see in the populations of what mosquitoes are dragging around in different areas,” Tocco says.

This information can help scientists predict where different strains of the virus may appear, when considering how mosquitoes and birds move around the country.

The researchers concluded that differences in the genetic makeup of these viruses suggests that vector-host feeding preferences are likely driving viral transmission. Different mosquito species prefer to feed on different animal hosts. This leads to multiple kinds of animals becoming infected with West Nile viruses.

Understanding the genetic makeup of the viruses could enable researchers, diagnosticians, and veterinarians to understand which animals may be more susceptible to the virus, disease severity, and what symptoms could look like.

“It could open up a whole can of worms,” Tocco says. “In reality, I think we need to do more research on that to see what we’re finding and what kinds of patterns we should expect in terms of the different strains and what kind of diseases we see with those.”

West Nile virus was first detected in New York City in 1999 and quickly spread throughout the country. By 2000 it was present in Connecticut. Since then, West Nile has remained a public health concern in the U.S.

In the early 2000s, the CVMDL published one of the first papers on West Nile virus in the U.S.

“Aside from having it here in Connecticut and being a public health concern, it also brings more variety to the lab to bring West Nile research back to the forefront through the use of our diagnostic cases,” Tocco says.

While this paper only focused on two cases, the researchers are currently working on another paper analyzing the specific symptoms from all eight cases.

The number of West Nile virus cases the CVMDL sees each year varies. During particularly wet summers, which are ideal for mosquitoes, they tend to see more cases. In 2022, they diagnosed 30 cases.

Birds – and corvids like crows, ravens, and jays in particular – are common carriers of West Nile virus.

The most common symptoms of West Nile in these animals include seizures, being unable to get up, neurological signs, and ocular signs. Symptoms affecting the eyes are particularly common in raptors like eagles, owls, and hawks. Raptors also may get heart disease from the virus.

“There’s a variety of lesions we can see with West Nile so it’s more about being proactive with these diagnostic cases at certain times of year and keeping on high alert because it’s not just the nervous system signs in some animals,” Tocco says.

The most common season for West Nile viruses is August to October. However, as the climate in Connecticut warms the range of West Nile is expanding. Tocco says she has diagnosed West Nile cases as late as November and as early as May.

“Those might be the anomalies but those might be a predictor of what we can expect in the future,” Tocco says. “And to not put the blinders on to the time of year, but expand that window based on what we’re seeing diagnostically.”

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Veterinary Science

DOI

10.3389/fvets.2023.1085554 

ARTICLE TITLE

Whole genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of West Nile viruses from animals in New England, United States, 2021

Study reveals honey bee nest structure is surprisingly adaptive, resilient

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AUBURN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS

Researchers from the Department of Biological Sciences at Auburn University have discovered that honey bee colonies have surprising abilities to adapt and maintain their nest structure, even in the face of severe disruptions.

Contrary to previous assumptions, the researchers found that the disruption of three-dimensional nest structure while colonies were building their nests did not hinder colony performance. The findings shed new light on the adaptive nature of honey bee colonies and how nest structure contributes to colony function.

The study focused on the intricate three-dimensional nest building behavior of honey bee colonies. To investigate the development of honey bee nests over time, the research team employed non-destructive, photo-based sampling methods using moveable wooden bee-frames. This approach allowed them to observe and analyze the growth and organization of combs within the nests without sacrificing the colonies. They found that honey bees rapidly build a well-connected spheroid nest composed of parallel combs that expand in all directions from the nest origin.

To test how important this stereotyped structure is for colony development, the international team of researchers disrupted the nest structure of another group of colonies by rearranging the movable wooden bee-frames in a new randomized order every week. They initially hypothesized that this disruption would negatively impact colony-level performance. However, the study revealed no significant difference in worker population, comb area, hive weight, or nest temperature between colonies with intact nest structures and those with disrupted nest structures.

The surprising lack of difference in colony performance led the researchers to explore the mechanisms behind the honey bees’ ability to compensate for repeated disruptions. By modeling the colony’s building behavior, they found that colonies prioritize structural connectedness when expanding their nests, actively repairing connections in the three-dimensional nest structure following the experimental disruptions. This highlights the colony’s ability to adapt their comb shape to the available space within a cavity, an essential skill in the wild, where cavities are not uniform.

The study also identified potential reasons why honey bees prioritize nest connectedness. A well-connected nest reduces the surface area-to-volume ratio, potentially enhancing thermoregulation efficiency, improving larvae development and winter survival. It also may facilitate information-sharing among colony members and optimize travel distances within the nest for essential activities such as foraging, feeding larvae, and egg-laying.

“We were all surprised that the shuffled colonies performed as well as they did,” said Auburn’s Peter R. Marting, the first author of the study. “We expected some shuffled colonies wouldn’t even survive the summer. The bees’ resilience led us to take a closer look at how and where exactly workers were adding new comb to shape their nests and ultimately led us to develop the predictive comb growth models.”

The research team believes that understanding the underlying mechanisms behind these adaptive building strategies in social insects can provide valuable insights into collective intelligence and resilience in complex systems.

The study, “Manipulating nest architecture reveals three-dimensional building strategies and colony resilience in honeybees,” appears in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences and is available for reference.

“Honey bees are an extremely well-studied system, but many basic developmental questions remain unanswered, because we don’t typically look at the colony’s natural life cycle,” said Michael L. Smith, senior author of the study. “Sometimes you just have to do the experiment and see what the bees will do.”

Watch Visual Abstract: Honeybee Nest Architecture.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rspb.2022.2565 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Manipulating nest architecture reveals three-dimensional building strategies and colony resilience in honeybees

When it comes to bumblebees, does size matter?

Entomologists abuzz over questions about bumblebee bodies

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - RIVERSIDE

 

IMAGE: BUMBLEBEE BODY SIZES ARE A MYSTERY TO ENTOMOLOGISTS, FOR NOW. view more 

CREDIT: HOLLIS WOODARD/UCR

Certain crops, like greenhouse tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and blueberries, rely on bumblebees for a style of pollination that only bumblebees can perform. Among growers, the preference can be for bigger-bodied bumblebees because they’re thought to be more efficient pollinators. 

Enabled by a $750,000 grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the research team will investigate factors suspected of influencing bumblebee biology and body size, including climate change, wildfires, and the presence of nearby honeybee colonies.

In many cases, individual animals are born smaller when their habitat has less nutrition available. The researchers want to know if this is also true for bees. “One idea is that honeybees are taking more food resources, resulting in smaller bumbles. This is part of what we will be testing,” said UCR entomologist and project lead Hollis Woodard.

To test this, the researchers will collect bumblebee size data over the next four years from places both with and without honeybees nearby. “It’s hard to find anywhere in the lower 48 without either managed or feral honeybees. For this reason, we’re headed to Alaska for part of the study,” Woodard said.

Fire may also play a role in bumblebee development. Some research has shown that bumblebees are born bigger, and in higher numbers, during the years following a wildfire. Since wildfires are common in California, the research team will also be collecting data from places throughout the state with different types of fire histories.

A variety of bumblebee body sizes on display.

CREDIT

UCR

“Fires are good in some ways for bees,” Woodard said. “As the land recovers from the burn, a lot of flowers appear, offering food.”

In addition to the mystery of what influences the bees’ body size, it’s also unclear what role size plays in a bumble colony. While all bumblebee workers perform the same functions, variation in size could allow the hive as a whole to collect pollen from a wider variety of flowers. 

Though bigger bees can collect more pollen, they might not be right for every plant species. For some flowers, especially those that are trumpet-shaped, smaller bumblebees are better pollinators. 

“There are theories that bumblebee sizes are just random, or that it’s just generally good to have variation,” Woodard said. ‘Right now, we don’t yet know exactly what this variation in size does for colonies.”

In addition to benefitting crop growers, the team’s findings could ultimately benefit the bees themselves. “Any insights we gain into factors affecting the bumblebees could help us better understand how to bolster their dwindling populations,” Woodard said. “Helping them in turn helps ensure the health of wildflowers, as well as our food supply."