STUDY OF THE BIOLOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SPS MICROWAVE POWER ON THE HONEY BEE Norman E. Gary and Becky Brown Westerdahl Department of Entomology - University of California, Davis The proposed SPS system will increase ambient microwave energy levels in receiving antennae and in adjacent areas. Possible biological and environmental effects (whether adverse or beneficial) from microwave radiation within the surrounding rectennae need to be defined for a broad spectrum of animal and plant life. This information is needed in order to minimize possible hazards and to permit maximum possible use of microwave illuminated areas. Research needs are particularly critical for airborne biota such as invertebrates and birds which cannot be excluded from the rectennal area. Honey bees are an ideal species to represent invertebrates that might encounter SPS frequency microwaves. Particular advantages of honey bees are their small size, relative simplicity of various body systems, ease and economy of propagation, expendability and short life cycle. In addition, honey bees have already been shown to be sensitive to various forms of electromagnetic energy. Studies using invertebrates can be conducted on larger numbers of individuals much more rapidly and with a higher degree of reproducibility. Chronic studies involving exposure of successive generations can be completed much more rapidly with invertebrates than with vertebrates. In addition, similarities between invertebrates and higher animals will facilitate the extrapolation of information for man's protection. The following experiments have been completed in recent months: (1) the orientation, navigation and memory of foraging bees; (2) the survival and longevity of adult worker bees and (3) the survival of honey bee brood (eggs, larvae and pupae) following 30 minute exposures to 5 levels (3, 6, 9, 25 and 50 mw/cm2) of 2.45 GHz CW radiation. These studies were conducted in a newly developed microwave exposure facility designed by engineers from U. C. Davis and the Environmental Protection Agency at Research Triangle Park. A 2.45 GHz CW power supply (300 watts maximum power) transmits variable levels of microwave radiation to a horn antenna located atop a rectangular exposure chamber (internal dimensions 61X61X182 cm) lined with microwave absorber. Bees to be exposed are placed in styrofoam cages on the treatment platform 121 cm below the horn antenna. Control bees are placed in a sham chamber of identical construction connected by an air duct into the microwave chamber. Air from the microwave chamber is drawn through the duct into the sham chamber so that control bees are exposed to the same gaseous environment and held at the same temperature as the microwave treated bees. An additional group of control bees is held within the laboratory and never exposed within either chamber. The first study completed utilized a bioassay that involved the behavioral elements of orientation, navigation and memory of honey bees. The ability of bees (which routinely leave the hive several times daily to forage for food up
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