Peter Graystock

Studies the influence of microbial ecology on pollinator health. His work is supported by both industry and conservation trusts and has been influential in improving policy and industrial practices to reduce parasite risks to wild bees.

1-Microbial function: The function of a parasite may be quite apparent such as causing the host to die. Other microbes may be more cryptic in their potential functional role, such as improving digestion or reducing parasite virulence. Peter looks to identify these less apparent functions of microbes and exploit them to improve pollinator health

2-Transmission dynamics: microbes (both good and bad) are shared across pollinator communities but it is unclear what drives and modulates this ‘sharing’ of microbes. Peter's work looks to address this and make reliable predictions of how the pollinator communities and their landscapes facilitate disease epidemics.

Publications

Journals

• Kenna D, Graystock P, Gill R, 2023, Toxic temperatures: bee behaviours exhibit divergent pesticide toxicity relationships with warming, Global Change Biology, Vol:29, ISSN:1354-1013, Pages:2981-2998
• Yordanova M, Evison SEF, Gill RJ, et al., 2022, The threat of pesticide and disease co-exposure to managed and wild bee larvae, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife, Vol:17, ISSN:2213-2244, Pages:319-326
• Piot N, Schweiger O, Meeus I, et al., 2022, Honey bees and climate explain viral prevalence in wild bee communities on a continental scale, Scientific Reports, Vol:12, ISSN:2045-2322
• Rothman JA, Russell KA, Leger L, et al., 2020, The direct and indirect effects of environmental toxicants on the health of bumblebees and their microbiomes, Proceedings of the Royal Society B-biological Sciences, Vol:287, ISSN:0962-8452
• Graystock P, Ng WH, Parks K, et al., 2020, Dominant bee species and floral abundance drive parasite temporal dynamics in plant-pollinator communities, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Vol:4, ISSN:2397-334X, Pages:1358-1367