The role of honeybees (Apis mellifera) has long been recognized as fundamental in the field of agriculture, especially in the fruit sector. However, the systematic use of pesticides is threatening their existence, in fact in recent years, the hives mortality is high in intensive fruit growing areas. This effect has been little studied in viticulture, and even less in organic viticulture. As a matter of fact, honeybees represent an extremely effective tool for collecting pollen, which in turn is an excellent bioindicator of the environmental health, considering that bees belonging to a single hive can forage an area of 700 hectares or even more.
The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the environmental quality by pesticides distribution considering organically-managed vineyards located into two different landscapes in Trentino region (Italy). The first vineyard is located in a quite isolated area, while the second one is closed to the city of Trento. Several colonies will be placed in the two vineyards and pollen loads collected by honeybees will be sampled every 15 days during spring and summer 2021. In order to identify potential residuals coming from organic vineyards, a subset of pollen coming from Phacelia tanacetifolia which be separated, as this species is part of multi-species mixtures used as annual green manure only in organic vineyards. All pollen samples will be subjected to multi-residual analysis of ca. 500 pesticides and palynology analysis. This thesis project is done in collaboration with the Cantine Ferrari- Lunelli.