Qualidade do ambiente urbano para abelhas: índice de qualidade ambiental e avaliação da contaminação dos recursos alimentares por metais

Abstract

Changes in land use and land cover directly interfere with biodiversity and the maintenance of ecosystem services. In cities, various sources of pollution contain metals that contribute to poor environmental quality, affecting bees. Initially, this study aims to propose the construction of an Environmental Quality Index for Bees (EQIB) in urban areas, parameterized in the cities of Uberaba, Uberlândia, and Araguari-MG. The EQIB was developed through a multi-criteria analysis conducted in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. The criteria chosen to determine environmental quality for bees were: proximity to watercourses, terrain slope, apparent surface temperature, soil types, and land use and land cover. Uberaba and Uberlândia stood out for respectively having 33% and 48% of their areas classified as very high environmental quality. However, Uberlândia also had a high percentage of areas with low and very low environmental quality (46%); whereas in Araguari, these areas were predominant, corresponding to 67%. Secondly, the aim was to determine heavy metal contamination in Tecoma stans pollen samples, a species common in urban environments and frequently visited by bees for food resources. Samples were collected in the urban area of Uberlândia, MG, in 2023. Through spatial analysis of the city, locations with distinct EQIB (low, medium, and very high environmental quality) were selected to assess the influence of the environment on metal concentration. No statistically significant difference was found in the amount of metals in the pollen samples among locations with different EQIB. Therefore, it is concluded that bees in urban areas are susceptible to metal contamination, even in areas classified as high environmental quality.