Date Approved

2019

Degree Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department or School

Mathematics and Statistics

Committee Member

Khairul Islam, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Rita Chattopadhyay, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Tanweer Shapla, Ph.D.

Abstract

Colony collapse disorder (CCD), which has caused high colony mortality rates in the European honeybee (Apis mellifera), is a pressing economical and ecological problem. I revisited Woodcock et al.'s (2017a) paper, "Country-specic Effects of Neonicotinoid Pesticides on Honey Bees and Wild Bees", in light of unsound statistical methods used in the original study. In the first part of this paper, I attempted to replicate the analysis underlying key findings in the original paper. In the second part, I reanalyzed the data using mostly non-parametric methods in order to obtain robust results. I did not find any evidence for a harmful effect from neonicotinoids (NNIs). There was weak evidence that NNI exposure was associated with lower colony mortality in UK sites. ii

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