Aspectos etnobiológicos e ecológicos da apicultura itinerante no nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

Itinerant beekeeping, in which bees of Apis mellifera species are raised in mobile hives, and then they are transported to places where there are flower is an agricultural practice quite promising for agribusiness development, as it seems to result in increased production relative to permanent beekeeping, and for conservation of native vegetation areas, because beekeepers tend to conserve areas used for bee foraging. However, the knowledge about the effects related to this modality, or about the impact it has on a reproduction of native plants, especially due to competition between plants, is very little. This research aims to study the ethnobiological aspects of beekeeping and to investigate an influence on the reproduction of plants in an area of the Chapada do Araripe. The specific objectives were: 1) To carry out an ethnobiological survey related to itinerant beekeeping, seeking to identify the behavior of beekeepers in relation to the selection of areas for the foraging of bees; 2) To understand the criteria for the selection of areas for the placement of hives by beekeepers and to classify their behavior in relation to this classification based on foraging theory; 3) To evaluate the influence of migratory beekeeping bees on the pre-emergent reproductive success on native plants. In the first study, we analyzed strategies to obtain resources from the perspective of individual and social foraging. Therefore, we tested, respectively, hypotheses that addressed whether individual strategies followed the predictions of classic models of optimal foraging theory (OFT), and, in the second approach, we investigated potential social influences on resource-obtaining strategies. In this investigation, our results suggest that regardless of the strategy adopted by the forager (generalist or specialist), environmental factors, such as abundance, regulated success in obtaining resources and, that that forager decision-making was related to the social context of the individual forager, which influenced their strategies. Contemplating the last objective of this thesis, we evaluated the influence of migratory beekeeping bees on the pre-emergent reproductive success of four native plant species with generalist pollination syndrome (Croton blanchetianus, C. campestris, Matayba guianensis e Serjania lethalis), according to the information provided by beekeepers, in areas with presence and absence of itinerant apiaries. Our results showed a positive tendency for the reproduction rates of C. blanchetianus and Serjania lethalis in areas under the influence of migratory beekeeping, while for the others (C. campestris and Matayba guianensis), no increase or decrease in production was observed among individuals under the two analyzed conditions.