D. Bevk

• PhD
• Research Associate at National Institute of Biology

Objectives To estimate the lifetime prevalence of first and recurrent systemic allergic reaction to bee venom among Slovenian beekeepers. Additionally, we aimed to elucidate the risk factors predisposing beekeepers to developing systemic allergic reaction to bee venom. Methods A nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,080 beekeepers...

Odrasli so pomemben del populacije, odgovoren za ukrepanje ob podnebnih spremembah. V iskanju načinov za aktiviranje participacije odraslih v izobraževanju s poudarkom na področju okoljskega izobraževanja smo preizkušali pristop državljanske znanosti v povezavi s skupnostnim učenjem v okviru kampanje ≫Opazovanje obiskovalcev sončnic≪, ki je potekal...

Amid ongoing urbanisation, domestic gardens are expected to play an increasing role in enhancing urban biodiversity by supplementing green areas and improving landscape connectivity. Biodiversity-friendly gardens also improve human well-being and foster connections between nature and people. To study these benefits, we distributed an online questio...

Recent declines in insect abundances, especially populations of wild pollinators, pose a threat to many natural and agricultural ecosystems. Traditional species monitoring relies on morphological character identification and is inadequate for efficient and standardized surveys. DNA barcoding has become a standard approach for molecular identificati...

Recent declines in insect abundances, especially populations of wild pollinators, pose a threat to many natural and agricultural ecosystems. Traditional species monitoring relies on morphological character identification and is inadequate for efficient and standardized surveys. DNA barcoding has become a standard approach for molecular identificati...

An essential prerequisite to safeguard pollinator species is characterisation of the multifaceted diversity of crop pollinators and identification of the drivers of pollinator community changes across biogeographical gradients. The extent to which intensive agriculture is associated with the homogenisation of biological communities at large spatial...

We conducted a citizen science project where the participants observed pollinators on sunflowers. Individual or group observations resulted in over 1800 observation sessions with over 5000 pollinators counted, at various locations across Slovenia. The aim of the project was first to use the framework of citizen science as a teaching platform in adu...

While wild pollinators play a key role in global food production, their assessment is currently missing from the most commonly used environmental impact assessment method, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This is mainly due to constraints in data availability and compatibility with LCA inventories. To target this gap, relative pollinator abundance esti...

Safeguarding crop pollination services requires the identification of the pollinator species involved and the provision of their ecological requirements at multiple spatial scales. However, the potential for agroecological intensification of pollinator-dependent crops by harnessing pollinator diversity is limited by our capacity to characterise the...

Mitigating pollinator declines in agriculturally dominated landscapes to safeguard pollination services requires the involvement of farmers and their willingness to adopt pollinator-friendly management. However, farmer knowledge, perceptions, and actions to support on-farm pollinators and their alignment with science-based knowledge and recommendat...

Insect pollination is one of the most important ecosystem services. Pollinator communities are rarely studied across years and crops in the same location. The aim of this study was to investigate the pollinator community structure on five different fruit crops, as well as the activity of different pollinator groups during the day and their temperat...

Slovenia has a long tradition of beekeeping and a high density of honeybee colonies, but less is known about bumblebees and their pathogens. Therefore, a study was conducted to define the incidence and prevalence of pathogens in bumblebees and to determine whether there are links between infections in bumblebees and honeybees. In 2017 and 2018, cli...

The aim of this research was to survey green roofs for pollinator abundance and diversity. The research was conducted in 2019 on green roofs in Ljubljana and Škofja Loka (Slovenia). During the whole flowering season, we counted the number of honeybees, bumblebees, other wild bees, hoverflies, and butterflies. Results showed that various pollinators...

In recent years, there has been growing evidence that certain types of honeybee viruses could be transmitted between different pollinators. Within a voluntary monitoring programme, 180 honeybee samples (Apis mellifera carnica) were collected from affected apiaries between 2007 and 2018. Also from August 2017 to August 2018, a total 148 samples of h...

Agricultural intensification and associated loss of high‐quality habitats are key drivers of insect pollinator declines. With the aim of decreasing the environmental impact of agriculture, the 2014 EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) defined a set of habitat and landscape features (Ecological Focus Areas: EFAs) farmers could select from as a requir...

Pollination by insects is a key input into many crops, with managed honeybees often being hired to support pollination services. Despite substantial research into pollination management, no European studies have yet explored how and why farmers managed pollination services and few have explored why beekeepers use certain crops. Using paired surveys...

Bees play an important role in natural and agricultural landscape. Due to a lack of data of status and trends of their populations there is a great need to develop an efficient and reliable monitoring scheme of bee populations. in our study, three differently coloured pan traps and two differently coloured vane traps were tested at two locations in...

USING HONEYBEES (APIS MELLIFERA) TO IMPROVE POLLINATION OF STRAWBERRIES AND TO DELIVER BIOCONTROL AGENT FOR PROTECTION FROM GREY MOULD (BOTRYTIS CINEREA) Foraging activity of honeybees on strawberry flowers and protection of strawberries from grey mould, using spores of the fungus Gliocladium catenulatum in Prestop Mix was studied. G. catenulatum,...

We investigated whether coumaphos, an organophosphate used to control the parasitic mite Varroa destructor, affects trophallaxis in honeybees. Donors were treated with coumaphos 1 h before experiments. In this, uncontaminated food was transferred from donors to recipients. The amount of food transferred was measured (a) directly by weighing food or...

The availability of hoverflies as pollinators and biocontrol agents over the course of a year was investigated. In total, 62 species and 252 individuals were found. Hoverflies can pollinate trees, shrubs and herbs throughout the year, with peaks in May, June and July. Specifically, species that feed on aphids during the larval stage occur throughou...

In the Škofja Loka mountains about one half of the Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus leks known in the 1980s still remained active in 2005–2007. However, in the Slovenian pre-Alpine mountains of Cerkno and Polhov Gradec, the number of active leks had declined by 90 and 100%, respectively. We searched for parameters associated with the abandonment and r...

Observations of activity of three bumblebee species (Bombus pascuorum, B. humilis and B. lapidarius) during the day and season are presented. The frequency of outflights was used as the criterion of activity. The observed species are distinguished by the pattern of changes in frequency of outflights during the season as well as over the day. The di...