Honeybees populations continue to decrease, raising concerns about food shortages and higher prices at grocery stores because of the importance of the insects for pollination.
A team of faculty researchers from ASU and UNC-Charlotte, led by Appalachian’s Dr. Rahman Tashakkori, will conduct a three-year honeybee research program to help address this decline.
The program is supported by a nearly $1.1 million grant through the University of North Carolina System’s Research Opportunities Initiative (ROI).
As part of the program, the team will create a new beekeeping information system called AppMAIS (App State Multipurpose Apiary Informatics System) to investigate the health, development and genomic diversity of honeybee hives in North Carolina. The shared data from their research will inform scientists, researchers, educators, beekeepers and the public.
The researchers will utilize the Beemon hive monitoring system designed and built by computer science faculty and students at Appalachian, as well as an open-source internet platform.
“This award underscores the impactful, high-quality research being conducted by Appalachian faculty,” said Appalachian’s Dr. Ece Karatan, vice provost for research. “The project has the potential to make Appalachian and North Carolina a national and international hub for apiary informatics.”
ASU students taking part in the project’s cutting-edge research opportunities will be well positioned for graduate school or careers in computer science and biology, Karatan added.
AppMAIS will provide both beekeepers and researchers with an opportunity to remotely monitor their hives’ growth and health, said Tashakkori, Lowe’s Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and chair of the Department of Computer Science at ASU. Tashakkori noted manual observation and monitoring of the hives is not feasible on a large scale.
Using AppMAIS, 30 healthy and unhealthy hives in different environments across the state will be monitored. The system will collect and analyze audio and video recordings of hive activity, along with data on hive humidity, temperature and weight.
The team will also extract DNA samples from multiple honeybees and observe the bees’ genetic diversity changes over the course of a season and between hives.
The project will provide hands-on training opportunities for computer science, biology and biochemistry students at Appalachian and UNC-Charlotte, as well as for North Carolina beekeepers who participate in the project.
The AppMAIS faculty team is among three at institutions across the UNC System awarded an ROI grant for the 2022-24 cycle.
— Submitted by Appalachian State University
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