EDITORIAL
published: 12 July 2022
doi: 10.3389/fevo.2022.946737
Editorial: Adaptation of Invasive
Species to Islands and the Puerto
Rican Honey Bee
Rosanna Giordano 1,2*, Alberto Galindo-Cardona 3 , Elvia Melendez-Ackerman 4 ,
Shu-Ching Chen 5 and Tugrul Giray 6,7
1
Institute of Environment, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States, 2 Puerto Rico Science, Technology &
Research Trust, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 3 CCT CONICET Tucuman, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, 4 Department of
Environmental Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico,
5
Data Science and Analytics Innovation Center, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, United States, 6 Institute
of Neurobiology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 7 Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, San
Juan, Puerto Rico
Keywords: biological invasions, Caribbean, Africanized honey bee, Apis mellifera, pollinators
Editorial on the Research Topic
Adaptation of Invasive Species to Islands and the Puerto Rican Honey Bee
Edited and reviewed by:
Peter Convey,
British Antarctic Survey (BAS),
United Kingdom
*Correspondence:
Rosanna Giordano
rgiordano500@gmail.com
In Memoriam:
This paper is dedicated to the memory
of Prof. Modesto Matias (1951–2022).
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to
Biogeography and Macroecology,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Received: 17 May 2022
Accepted: 15 June 2022
Published: 12 July 2022
Citation:
Giordano R, Galindo-Cardona A,
Melendez-Ackerman E, Chen S-C and
Giray T (2022) Editorial: Adaptation of
Invasive Species to Islands and the
Puerto Rican Honey Bee.
Front. Ecol. Evol. 10:946737.
doi: 10.3389/fevo.2022.946737
Honey bees critically impact global food security as pollinators in agricultural systems worldwide
(Aizen and Harder, 2009; Potts et al., 2016). They are also considered one of the most successful
invasive organisms, having been transported by humans to all continents except for the Arctic
and the Antarctic. However, along with other insects, they are increasingly under threat by
anthropogenic activities (Wagner et al., 2021). We explored the adaptation of honey bees
introduced by humans to the Americas.
Africanized honey bees (AHB) are the product of human introduction of Apis mellifera scutellata
bees from Africa to the Americas in 1956. These African bees later hybridized with European honey
bees previously brought to the Americas and resulted in the hybrid AHB, infamous for their high
defensive behavior and serious economic and ecological impact (reviewed in Guzman-Novoa et
al.). The adaptation of AHB to the island of Puerto Rico, such as the reduced defensive behavior,
provides insight into changes that can occur to invasive organisms and the invaded ecosystem after
colonization (Rivera-Marchand et al., 2012; Avalos et al., 2017). An advantage of research focused
on island populations is that adaptive processes on islands are accelerated and may readily show
similar patterns across species. Examples of adaptations on islands include the breakdown of the
usually observed mutualism between Cecropia trees and Azteca ants and the reduced aggression
of Solenopsis geminata on Puerto Rico (Rivera-Marchand et al., 2012 and references therein).
Thus, data from island populations can be particularly useful to develop and test models of
invasion biology.
This collection of research articles was inspired by the “Puerto Rico Honey Bees and Evolution
of Invasive Organisms on Islands” conference, held in July 2019, in person, in Puerto Rico (PRHB,
2019). The focus of the conference was the Puerto Rico Gentle Africanized honey bee and other
non-native organisms, through the lens of invasion biology and island biogeography. This Frontiers
Research Topic broadens the scope of the conference presentations by including new organisms,
data, and perspectives, in the post-pandemic world. Several articles were completed and submitted
before the pandemic, and some produced under pandemic conditions, resulting in a collection of
papers with publication dates in 2020 and 2021.
This Frontiers Research Topic highlights the study of island invasion biology from the
perspective of different disciplines and approaches, including genomics, morphology, behavior,
ecology, and long-term data analyses. The result of this interdisciplinary approach is an
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Editorial: Bees and Invasives on Puerto Rico
POTENTIAL “PRE-ADAPTATIONS”
examination of: 1. The invasive species on the island of Puerto
Rico; 2. Ancestral populations of the invasives; 3. Adaptations of
invasives and characteristics of Puerto Rico honey bees.
Puerto Rico has two prominent social insect invaders, fire
ants and honey bees (Torres and Gaud, 1998). Ortiz-Alvarado
and Rivera-Marchand, discuss the unique behavioral plasticity
of fire ant queens in Puerto Rico. In this species, in
Puerto Rico, unlike in any other described ant species,
queens demonstrate worker behaviors in response to colony
demographic changes. The flexibility of this characteristic
can function as a pre-adaptation that may contribute to a
successful invasion.
Honey bee, physiological, morphological, and behavioral traits
may contribute to their success across the world and in Puerto
Rico. Smith et al. explore the morphological characteristics of
honey bee mandibles that enable them to bite and inflict damage
to their parasitic mites Varroa destructor. The biting behavior
and associated resistance of Africanized (Guzman-Novoa et al.)
and Puerto Rico honey bees (Rivera-Marchand et al., 2012)
to V. destructor are now well-established characteristics. In
this issue, Russo et al. also discuss this topic with reference
to honey bees from Argentina. The morphological basis that
underpins the V. destructor resistance has only recently begun to
be explored.
Temperature and seasonal effects on physiology and behavior
are usually thought of as important for honey bees in
temperate zones. However, these aspects may become relevant
under the novel contexts honey bees encounter in island
environments. Saleem et al. explore the role of temperature
in altering the toxicity of commonly used neonicotinoid
insecticides. Feliciano-Cardona et al. explore the importance of
the seasonal production of long-lived bees for colonies with
respect to seasonal resource availability, even in the absence of
a temperate winter.
An important feature of invasion biology is the ability
of invaders to find and mate with conspecifics in the new
environment. The work of Galindo-Cardona et al. addresses
the risks and benefits of sexual reproduction for honey bees,
with respect to finding mates and transmission of disease.
Galindo-Cardona et al. show that in their study sites in
Argentina, findings obtained from drone congregation areas
reflect the health status of colonies present in the same
study areas.
This Frontiers Research Topic is a testament to the rich
research base that honey bees provide and can lead to
interdisciplinary and integrated examinations of invasion biology
of this one species. The knowledge regarding the impact
and adaptations of introduced populations may also answer
practical concerns such as the movement of bees for apiculture
and agriculture. In fact, the conference helped to catalyze
the formation of a technical working group to study risks
and benefits of honey bee movement in the example of one
country, i.e. the United States. (Marcelino et al.). The example
of honey bee invasive biology can also lead to significant and
novel research and applications for other biological invasions
on islands.
THE INVASIVE SPECIES ON THE ISLAND
OF PUERTO RICO
Three articles examine invasive species in Puerto Rico.
Zimmerman et al. review invasive species of Puerto Rico in
general, based on long-term research in El Yunque National
Forest. Next Ackerman reviews the positive and negative
impacts of honey bees on other bees and plants in Puerto
Rico and the Caribbean. The negative and positive effects of
invasives in Puerto Rico are explored by Cabrera-Asencio and
Meléndez-Ackerman using mango cultivars and their honey
bee pollinator.
Zimmerman et al. using data from the El Yunque National
Forest, conclude that the invasives they examined were able to
establish in Puerto Rico independent of disturbance of habitat.
An exception to their findings were vascular plants, determined
to be less likely to invade minimally disturbed forest habitat. The
presence of honey bees as well as other invertebrates, was not
influenced by level of disturbance.
The impact of the successful invasive honey bee on islands
is reviewed by Ackerman. This review, with its presentation
of positive and negative effects, highlights the need for future
research on the impact of invasive bees on islands. Honey bees,
when present, add to the resilience of pollination networks, as
in the case of a key rainforest resource, the Sierra Palm (Prestoea
montana). However, the effectiveness of honey bees as pollinators
may also have negative results by facilitating the establishment of
undesirable invasive plants.
The influence of honey bee pollination on invasive plants
can be illustrated using the introduced mango cultivar in Puerto
Rico. Honey bee pollination was not considered important to the
productivity of this agricultural commodity. However, the work
of Cabrera-Asencio and Meléndez-Ackerman, demonstrated a
90% decrease in honey bee visits to mango flowers after
Hurricane María, a finding concomitant to a 60–70% decrease
in fruit production.
ANCESTRAL POPULATIONS OF INVASIVES
The ancestral populations that gave rise to the Puerto Rico
honey bee include the highly mixed European and Africanized
honey bees from the Americas (Acevedo-Gonzalez et al., 2019).
Guzman-Novoa et al. outlines the process and outcomes of
the Africanization in Mexico while Bianchi et al. demonstrate
the potential variation in a continental population that include
phenotypes and genotypes like those found in the Puerto
Rico population. Furthermore, this admixture variation can be
compared with patterns exhibited by locally adapted populations
of honey bees in their native range, as discussed by Kükrer et al.
for honey bees in Turkey.
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Editorial: Bees and Invasives on Puerto Rico
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
RG, AG-C, EM-A, S-CC, and TG contributed to the conception
and design of the special issue. All authors contributed to
the editorial writing and revision, read and approved the
submitted version.
We thank all participants of the Puerto Rico Honey Bees
and Evolution of Invasive Organisms on Islands conference
(August 13-15, 2019, San Juan, Puerto Rico. https://prhb.cs.
fiu.edu/) that led to the preparation of this special issue.
We would like to recognize the contributions made by the
late Professor Modesto Matias (1951-2022) to apiculture in
Puerto Rico by training many beekeepers in the school of
apiculture, La Escuela de Apicultura de Puerto Rico, that
he founded in Hatillo. We would also like to thank the
authors and reviewers of the articles and the Frontiers
editorial staff.
FUNDING
We acknowledge funding from NSF-DEB (2131647), NSF-HRD
(1736019), NSF-OISE (1545803), USDA-APHIS (AP20PPQS
and T00C009), and Puerto Rico Science, Technology and
Research Trust.
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Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a
potential conflict of interest.
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Copyright © 2022 Giordano, Galindo-Cardona, Melendez-Ackerman, Chen and
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