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Symposia

1. Neurobiolology

organized by

Dorothea Eisenhardt (Berlin, Germany)
Jean Christophe Sandoz (Toulouse, France)

Symposium description
Honeybees show a wide range of individual and social behaviours as well as impressive cognitive abilities that have long been thought to characterize only vertebrates. For this reason, the honeybee has become in the last century a standard model system for studying the neurobiology of behaviour, perception, learning and memory. Starting with the discovery of the bee dance by Karl von Frisch and the establishment of behavioural analysis on free flying bees in the middle of the last century, the study of bees’ behaviour strongly progressed with the establishment of learning paradigms that allowed studying the behaviour of single animals in the laboratory. In addition, the development of electrophysiological and optophysiological methods together with the recent deciphering of the honeybee genome have provided a rich array of scientific tools for understanding the neurobiological basis of bees’ behaviour and sensory physiology. This symposium will present recent advances in the field of honeybee neurobiology based on this diversity of experimental approaches. The work presented by the selected speakers will demonstrate that honeybee neurobiology is not only a fascinating field in itself but helps to elucidate major questions of the neuroscience of behaviour.

Invited Speakers
Wolfgang Blenau, Bernd Grünewald, Natalie Hempel-De Ibarra, Randolf Menzel, Nigel Raine, Wolfgang Rössler, Sharoni Shafir, Ricarda Scheiner, Geraldine Wright.

2. Chemical Ecology

organized by

Manfred Ayasse (Ulm, Germany)
Thomas Eltz (Bochum, Germany)

Symposium description
Bees live in a world of complex sensory impressions amongst which chemical stimuli are of foremost importance. Bees use a broad range of endogenous pheromonal chemicals for intraspecific communication, e.g. for identifying colony membership, location of food sources, mate recognition etc. Furthermore, they use information from host plant odors to locate resources, and to enhance foraging efficiency. The speakers of our symposium will present various examples of intra- and interspecific chemical communication in different groups of solitary and social bees.

Invited Speakers
Manfred Ayasse, Stefan Dötterl, Thomas Eltz, Stefan Jarau, Sara Leonhardt, Pierre Rasmont, Ann-Marie Rottler.

3. Physiology

organized by

Karl Crailsheim (Graz, Austria)

Symposium description
Classical disciplines have received more attention in honeybee science during the last years. This is due to new results and insights into hormonal, nutritional and behavioral physiology, and of course all metabolic aspects regarding immune defense. Especially nutrition went into the focus as not only being responsible for maintenance of the colony but also influencing the development of single bees from the larval stage on and having strong impacts on various parameters during the whole life of the bees. Knowledge about the genome of the honeybee also pushed physiological research forward. Colony losses during the last years have led to more intensive research of basic mechanisms. Still reasons for these losses are mostly unknown and that has led to the assumption that multiple factors might accumulate and lead to the death of bees. Nutrition, immune defense, temperature, endocrinological and neurobiological reasons are discussed as those factors.

Invited Speakers
coming soon.

4. Behaviour and Colony Function

organized by

Matthias Becher (Harpenden, UK)
Volker Grimm (Leipzig, Germany)
Thomas Schmickl (Graz, Austria)

Symposium description
Honeybee colony organization: from empirical studies to modeling approaches and technical applications
Honeybee societies are among the best researched complex societies. The abilities of these societies concerning flexibility, robustness and scalability is impressive. Natural selection has favoured a magnitude of behaviors that allow these societies to integrate thousands of individual agents (bees) into a well functioning self-regulating collective. On the one hand, due to the complexity of the regulating network of feedbacks in such colonies, mathematical models and computer simulation are a valuable tool to further improve understanding of empirical studies and to develop novel (empirically) testable hypotheses. On the other hand, the observed regulatory mechanisms have already inspired several engineering applications, ranging from honeybee-inspired swarm-intelligent algorithms to physically embodied bee-inspired robotic swarms.

Invited Speakers
Farshad Arvin, Matthias Becher, Brian Johnson, Peter Kennedy, Serge Kernbach, Tim Landgraf, Martina Szopek, Ronald Thenius.

5. Pathology

organized by

Dirk de Graaf (Ghent, Belgium)
Joachim de Miranda (Uppsala, Sweden)

Symposium description
This Symposium covers a broad spectrum of factors that affect bee health at individual, colony or population level. These include the classical biological Pathogens and Parasites (viruses, bacteria, fungi, microsporidia and mites), genetic Pathologies, Pesticides-Poisoning, Predators and Pests, as well as various syndromes and conditions. Also included as part of bee health are beneficial (micro-)organisms, genetics, chemicals and management strategies that enhance the health status of bees at individual, colony and population levels. Since much of the focus will naturally be on honey bees, the symposium particularly encourages contributions of the pathologies of non-Apis species as well as of innovative and sustainable health-management solutions for all bee species.

Invited Speakers
Marie-Pierre Chauzat, Elke Genersch, Mariano Higes & Raquel Martin-Hernandez, Marco Lodesani, Ivan Meeus, Alejandra Vasquez & Tobias Olofsson.

6. Population Genetics

organized by

Pilar de la Rua (Murcia, Spain)

Symposium description
Population genetic studies have grown since the development of molecular markers such as microsatellites and SNPs, coupled with increasingly sophisticated analytical tools. In particular, in Hymenoptera (not only honey bees, but also bumble bees and solitary bees), an important effort in relation to this subject is being achieved due to the concern about population declines of both wild and managed bees. In this symposium, some of Europe’s leading experts will bring together current knowledge on the present status of bees and their biodiversity and conservation, and on factors such as population size and inbreeding.

Invited Speakers
Maria Bouga, Raffaele Dall'Olio, Pilar de la Rua, Per Kryger, Robert Paxton, Alice Pinto

7. Genomics

organized by

Martin Hasselmann (Köln, Germany)

Symposium description
The number of genome sequences available for social insects have been substantially increased. Given the ongoing improvements of sequencing and analysis tools, we are still faced with the challenging task to decipher the relevant information to answer our scientific questions. Whole genome comparisons and a genome scale comparative analysis of protein-coding regions can reveal patterns of genetic change that coincided with the evolution of the differing social systems. Alternatively or in addition to that, candidate gene approaches may shed light on evolutionary novelties within distinct social insect lineages. Investigating levels of gene expression using RNAseq between different social insect castes can provide novel insights into the complexity of genetic regulations within organism. Despite certain challenges, genomic studies in social insects hold promises to elucidate more fundamental questions in evolutionary biology in the future.

Invited Speakers
Brielle Fischman, Yannick Wurm

8. Bee Doc EU Network

organized by

Bernhard Kraus (Halle, Germany)

Symposium description
BEE DOC is a European research network of eleven partners from honeybee pathology, chemistry, genetics and apicultural extension aiming to improve colony health of honeybees. the aim of BEE DOC is to empirically, experimentally fill knowledge gaps in honeybee pests and diseases, including 'colony collapse disorder' and quantify the impact of interactions between parasites, pathogens and pesticides on honeybee mortality. Parasites and pathogens in focus include Nosema microsporidia and Varroa mites and three model viruses (Deformed Wing Virus, Black Queen Cell Virus, Israel Acute Paralysis Virus). BEE DOC aims to identify novel genes for disease resistance by using transcriptome analyses to explore host-pathogen-pesticide interactions. Final goal of BEE DOC will be to develop novel diagnostic screening methods and sustainable concepts for disease prevention using novel treatments and selection tools for breeding and identifying resistant honeybee stock. The BEE DOC is linked to various national and international ongoing European, North- and South-American colony health monitoring and research programmes, to ensure pan-European but also global visibility and the transfer of results to apicultural practice in the world community of beekeepers. The Eurbee 2012 BEE DOC session will give an overview of the current state of research and the results achieved so far.

Invited Speakers
Vassya Bankova, Katarina Bíliková, Vincent Doublet, Dirk de Graaf, Cynthia McDonnel, Joachim de Miranda, Robin Moritz, Peter Neumann, Peter Rosenkranz, Martin Schmid

9. STEP EU Network

organized by

Simon Potts (Reading, UK)

Symposium description
The STEP project (Status and Trends of European Pollinators, www.STEP-project.net) is a major new European project addressing critical questions about pollinators and the services they provide, and includes more than 50 researchers from 20 countries. STEP is assessing the current status and trends of pollinators in Europe, quantifying the relative importance of various drivers and impacts of change, identifying relevant mitigation strategies and policy instruments, and disseminating this to a wide range of stakeholders. STEP is a very inclusive project by considering all pollinator taxa from wild bees, bumblebees and honeybees to hoverflies, flies and other insects; it also addresses both crop and wild flower pollination and the wider values of pollinators to society.
This symposium will deliver key findings from the STEP project relevant to researchers, farmers, conservationists, beekeepers, policy makers and the general public.

Invited Speakers
Tom Breeze, Luise Carvalheiro, Markus Franzen, David Kleijn, Simon Potts, Pierre Rasmont, Verena Riedinger, Stuart Roberts

10. Varroa destructor Satellite Session

organized by

Jurek Wilde, Niko Koeniger (Oberursel, Germany)

Symposium description
With a focus on new methods for the treatment of Varroosis, a sequence of Polish German symposia on bee research started in Stettin in 1992. This initiative became one of the roots of Eurbee conferences and after a period of 20 years it seems to be worthwhile to review past developments and to discuss prospective progress of control methods of Varroa destructor. We invite contributions to a full range of control methods from biotechnology, breeding, biological agents, chemotherapy, diagnose to the application of organic acids.

Invited Speakers
coming soon

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