Giulia Mainardi

• Honey bee ecology
• Nutritional analysis on pollen
• Landscape diversity and composition
• Monitoring of honey bee`s colonies during the overwintering period
• Connected bee hives
• Apiculture

BeeConnected

The project aims to monitor honey bee colonies during the foraging season and the overwintering period. The monitoring will take place along gradients in climate and landscape structure using both observational field methods and automated winter monitoring with low-cost connected sensors. Local beekeepers will also be involved in the project. BeeConnected project goal is the understanding and identification of early-warning indicators of winter bee colony mortality.

The focus of this PhD work is comparing the health status of honey bee hives colonies in different landscape and climate, through the study of pollen samples. Pollen diversity and nutritional values (protein and lipid content) will be analyzed with modern methods such as metabarcoding or GC-MS for fatty acid qualification.

https://www.beeconnected.online/

texttexttext

Giulia Mainardi, Douglas Sponsler, Etienne Minaud, Filippos Vardakas, Leonidas Charistos, et al..Floral diversity enhances winter survival of honeybee colonies across climatic regions.    Journal of Applied Ecology, 2025, 62, 14871497. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70054 

Philippos Vardakas, Giulia Mainardi, Etienne Minaud, Solenn Patalano, François Rebaudo, et al.. Unveiling beekeepers’ use and preference of precision apiculture systems. Journal of Apicultural Research, 2024, 110. https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2024.2355813

Étienne Minaud, François Rebaudo, Padraig Davidson, Fani Hatjina, Andreas Hotho, et al.. How stressors disrupt honey bee biological traits and overwintering mechanisms. Heliyon, 2024, 10, ⟨https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34390⟩. 

Etienne Minaud, François Rebaudo, Giulia Mainardi, Philippos Vardakas, Fani Hatjina, et al..  Temperature in overwintering honey bee colonies reveals brood status and predicts colony mortality. Ecological Indicators, 2024, 169, ⟨⟨https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112961⟩. 

L.B. Martínez-García, G.W. Korthals, L. Brussaard, G. Mainardi, G.B. De Deyn,
Litter quality drives nitrogen release, and agricultural management (organic vs. conventional) drives carbon loss during litter decomposition in agro-ecosystems,
Soil Biology and Biochemistry,
Volume 153,2021,108115,ISSN 0038-0717,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2020.108115.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038071720304119)

Cláudia de Lima e Silva, Claire van Haren, Giulia Mainardi, Winona de Rooij, Michella Ligtelijn, Nico M. van Straalen, Cornelis A.M. van Gestel,
Bringing ecology into toxicology: Life-cycle toxicity of two neonicotinoids to four different species of springtails in LUFA 2.2 natural soil,
Chemosphere,
Volume 263,2021,128245,ISSN 0045-6535,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128245.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653520324401)

Pitombeira de Figueirêdo L, Daam MA, Mainardi G, Mariën J, Espíndola ELG, van Gestel CAM, Roelofs D. 
The use of gene expression to unravel the single and mixture toxicity of abamectin and difenoconazole on survival and reproduction of the springtail Folsomia candida. 
Environ Pollut. 
2019 Jan;244:342-350. 
doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2018.10.077. Epub 2018 Oct 16. PMID: 30352348.