Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are important insects worldwide, not only for the production of honey and other hive products, but also in their role as pollinators of many crops. By pollinating a wide range of wild plants they also make an important contribution to the maintenance of plant biodiversity. Recently, they have been shown to be powerful bioindicators of industrial and radioactive contamination. These economic and ecological roles explain the need to protect honey bee populations against the many xenobiotics that could affect their survival and behavior. With the advent of plant biotechnology, the impacts of genetically modified plants on pollinating insects must also be evaluated. Honey Bees: Estimating the Environmental Impact of Chemicals provides the reader with an up-to-date account of the different strategies for assessing the ecotoxicity of xenobiotics against these insects, information on the direct and indirect effects against honey bees of radionuclides, heavy metals, pesticides, volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, and also genetically modified plants, are presented for the first time in a single volume. This book, written by an international panel of specialists in honey bee biology and ecotoxicology, contains reviews and novel scientific results on these different subjects.

It will be of interest not only to specialists in terrestrial ecotoxicology, but also to, scientists and students in related fields of environmental sciences. Book jacket.