Seminar "Honey bee as an integrative study model to connect social behavior with crop pollination" by Prof. Walter Farina, University of Buenos Aires

"Honey bee as an integrative study model to connect social behavior with crop pollination"

Walter M. Farina

Social Insects Lab, Department of Biodiversity and Experimental Biology, Institute of Physiology, Molecular Biology and Neuroscience, Faculty of Exacts and Natural Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

The major economic contribution of the honey bees is not the production of honey, wax or other hive products, but pollination of the most varied agricultural crops, including high-value ones, such as fruit quality food and seeds for oils. As a now worldwide established species that is managed by professional and hobby beekeepers, Apis mellifera generates billions dollar benefit in ecosystem services to the world economy. Not surprisingly, breeders have contributed to producing lineages favorable in terms of management and colony productivity. These are all behavioral traits, and hence, a first and important step is to understand behavioral integration and interaction among colony members in the foraging process. A main focus of my research group is to understand the coordination foraging tasks. This coordination is based on individual decisions and the social interactions that are established among colony members. Our research lines point to insect behavior in relation to communication systems and cognitive processes; especially, the acquisition and evocation of information related to the exploited resources. This information may be acquired inside the colony (during interactions among individuals) or outside while foraging. We see such behavioral ecology results as fundamental for understanding foraging decisions of honey bees in the context of agricultural crops. Our current research lines focus on connecting aspects of social learning with communication systems of the honey bee, as well as evaluating the environmental impact of agriculture on this sentinel species and develop tools that increase its efficiency as crop pollinator.

Walter Farina is Full Professor at the School of Exacts and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is also Principal Investigator of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina, being Faculty of the Institute of Physiology, Molecular Biology and Neurosciences in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His expertise area is the Integrative Biology. His studies combine topics of Behavioral Physiology, Neurobiology, Cognitive Ecology, Eco-toxicology and Crop Pollination using the honeybee as model study. He published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles in indexed Journals, participated as lecturer in more than 70 opportunities. He has orientated thirteen (14) PhD Thesis and twelve (12) Graduate Thesis. He has been distinguished as John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow in 2009. He has obtained grants to develop as basic research projects as well as technological transfer activities. He is also participated in international research cooperation projects with research groups in Germany, France, Brazil, USA, Mexico, Uruguay and Japan. He has participated in four patents of invention related to topics of precision beekeeping for crop pollination.