Research Proposal

 

While I was researching about GMO, I found out that there is a gene flow between GMO crops and plants in a neighborhood (Oliver, 2014). GMO is engineered to be pesticide resistant and this trait has been transferred to nearby plants (Oliver, 2014). This causes to lose ecosystem, biodiversity and quality of soil and food (Bohn & Lovei, 2017). Here, I was wondering about the relationship between pesticides and ecology. I would like to more about glyphosate-based herbicides and how it affects honeybees (Farina et al., 2019). I think this is important to know since glyphosate-based herbicides are commonly used in agriculture and it might be possibly affecting our health (Cuhra et al., 2016). Due to the current situation, I will refer to experiments and relevant data from scholarly articles that have already been completed. Below is the variable table of one of experiments in my research (El Agrebi et al., 2020).

Variable Table

Name	I/D/C	Units	Descriptions
Beebread	Independent	g	One of three matrices
Wax	Independent	g	One of three matrices
Honey	Independent	g	One of three matrices, ten paired wax/honey
GBH residue concentration	Dependent	%
AMPA residue concentration	Dependent	%

For this experiment, my research question is in regards to glyphosate-based herbicides affecting honeybees (El Agrebi et al., 2020). My hypothesis is if glyphosate-based herbicides affect honeybees, beebread, wax, and honey shows residue of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA). I expect beebread, wax, and honey shows the residue of GBH and AMPA. 

 

References

Bohn, T., & Lovei, G. L. (2017). Complex Outcomes from Insect and Weed Control with

Transgenic Plants: Ecological Surprises? Frontiers in Environmental Science. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A511188783/AONE?u=mcc_main&sid=AONE&xid=450db03a

Cuhra, M., Bohn, T., & Cuhra, P. (2016). Glyphosate: Too Much of a Good Thing? Frontiers

in Environmental Science. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A457242552/AONE?u=mcc_main&sid=AONE&xid=1a1b2c80

El Agrebi, N., Tosi, S., Wilmart, O., Scippo, M.-L., de Graaf, D. C., & Saegerman, C. (2020).

Honeybee and consumer’s exposure and risk characterisation to glyphosate-based herbicide (GBH) and its degradation product (AMPA): Residues in beebread, wax, and honey. Science of The Total Environment, 704, 135312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135312

Farina, W. M., Balbuena, M. S., Herbert, L. T., Mengoni Goñalons, C., & Vázquez, D. E.

(2019). Effects of the Herbicide Glyphosate on Honey Bee Sensory and Cognitive Abilities: Individual Impairments with Implications for the Hive. Insects, 10(10), 354. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10100354

Oliver M. J. (2014). Why we need GMO crops in agriculture. Missouri medicine, 111(6),

492–507. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6173531/