engleski

Trinitrotoluene bioaccumulation in the honey bee hive

Honey bees are well-known for their capacity to collect particles from the surrounding environment on their body hair and transporting this material back to the hive. This subsequently leads to bioaccumulation in the hive, the level of which is ultimately determined by the number of honey bees and time. This phenomenon can be exploited for monitoring various compounds in the environment, for instance, pesticides or radionuclides. Trinitrotoluene (TNT) vapours are difficult to detect partly due to low vapour pressure and environmental factors. Under the Bee4Exp project, honey bees have been applied to detecting explosive material from landmines using both an active method of honey bee conditioning and a passive method of hive air and particulate sampling after free-flying and subsequent analysis. In the passive method the sensing is performed by monitoring the loss of light emission from a luminescent thin film sensor when it comes into contact with a nitroaromatic material that has bioaccumulated in the hive, such as TNT. Explosives were sampled by air pump from the hive interior for vapours, and particulates from polymer mats on the hive entrance. The results indicate that the passive method can be a promising tool for detecting trace explosive vapours in complex real-world environments, with the polymer mats showing higher TNT retention.

honey bees, trinitrotoluene, bioaccumulation

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