Effects of anthropogenic stress on stingless bees Melipona mandacaia inhabiting urban and natural environments Dataset

Dataset Effects of anthropogenic stress on stingless bees Melipona mandacaia inhabiting urban and natural environments Dataset Isabelle Letícia Bender de Souza1,2, Leanna Camila Macarini1, Cíntia Mara Ribas de Oliveira3, Nuno G.C. Ferreira4,5, Ana Tereza Bittencourt Guimarães1,2 1 Ecotoxicology and Landscape Research Group, Rua Universitária n. 2069, Cascavel-PR, Brazil 2 Graduate Program in Biosciences and Health - Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná (UNIOESTE). Rua Universitária n. 2069, Cascavel-PR, Brazil 3 Graduate Program in Environmental Management (PPGAmb), Universidade Positivo (UP) and Centro de Pesquisa da Universidade Positivo (CPUP), Professor Pedro Viriato Parigot de Souza, n. 5300, 81280-330, Curitiba-PR, Brazil 4 CIIMAR/CIMAR LA, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Universidade do Porto, Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal 5 School of Biosciences - Cardiff University, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX, United Kingdom. * Corresponding author: ng[email protected] Abstract: Bees play a crucial role as pollinators, significantly contributing to ecosystem health. However, they face growing threats from human activities. This study uses biomarkers to evaluate the health status of Melipona mandacaia, a stingless bee native to the Caatinga biome, as indicators of anthropogenic stress. Bees were collected from the unique Caatinga biome, which had no recorded human pressure, and from an urban area with high human pressure. These bees were then analyzed for various biomarkers to assess the different levels of anthropogenic stress. The biomarkers included cholinesterases (ChE) to assess neurotoxicity, catalase (CAT) to measure antioxidant responses, glutathione S-transferases (GST) for detoxification pathways, and lipid peroxidation (LPO) as an indicator of oxidative stress. Keywords:Anthropogenic stressors, Biomarkers, Caatinga, Integrated Analysis, Pollinators 1. Data description The data presented herein relate to the manuscript " Effects of anthropogenic stress on stingless bees Melipona mandacaia inhabiting urban and natural environments” by Souza et al., submitted to Data In Brief. The dataset is related to the study of Souza et al. published to Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology. 2. Files The presented dataset includes two files divided into eight sheets each: File 1 - Biomarkers.xlsx: • Manuscript– publication information. • Biomarkers_data - Biomarker raw data for cholineserases (ChE), catalase (CAT), glutathione S-transferases (GST) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) per individual and per group, mean and standard deviation. • Weight_data– Weight data per individual and per group, mean and standard deviation. • Legend - Description of the acronyms used in the tables. 3. Acknowledgements The Authors would like to acknowledge the kind permission and assistance provided by the “Associação de Apicultores e Meliponicultores da Fazenda Santarém” and the “Meliponário Sanctorum” to conduct sampling on their lands and within their meliponaries. Their contributions, including reducing bee stress during capture and sharing valuable knowledge about the local area and bees' lifestyle, significantly enhanced this study's data collection and analysis. Nuno G. C. Ferreira was supported by FCT through f (DOI: 10.54499/2021.02111.CEECIND/CP1665/CT0003). Ana T. B. Guimarães was supported by CNPQ productivity researcher scholarship n. 304169/2020. This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) within the scope of UIDB/04423/2020, UIDP/04423/2020, Project BEESNESS (DOI:10.54499/CIRCNA/BRB/0293/201). 4. References Souza, I.L.B.; Macarini, L.C.; Oliveira, C.M.R.; Ferreira, N.G.C.; Guimarães, A.T.B. Effects of anthropogenic stress on stingless bees Melipona mandacaia inhabiting urban and natural environments. Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etap.2025.104658.