Fig. 1: A trait-based, spatially explicit framework for the pesticide exposure and risk of bees.
From: Ecological traits interact with landscape context to determine bees’ pesticide risk

a–d, We describe three sets of foraging traits of bees (based on refs. 23,30,82,83)—‘extensive’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘limited’ (a), in relation to landscape context (b), as demonstrated in low-intensity (c) and high-intensity (d) landscapes, whereby extensive (grey square) and limited (grey triangle) foragers move between habitat types within their respective foraging ranges (concentric circles relative to X, the central nests). Our baseline assumption (b, black circles) is that pesticide exposure and risk will increase with agricultural intensification, proportional to the area of agricultural land within the foraging range of bees (c and d, concentric circles). We expect bees with the largest foraging range, ‘extensive’ foragers, to receive the highest pesticide exposure and risk independent of landscape context (b, line intercept; c and d, grey squares). However, as agriculture intensifies, the proportion of agricultural land within the foraging range of bees increases and the likelihood of foraging on contaminated food increases. Therefore, we expect ‘limited’ foragers to be disproportionately more at risk from pesticide exposure as agricultural land expands (b, line slope; c and d, grey triangles). NA, not applicable.