Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Pollinators support ecosystems, food production and rural economies, yet their responses to environmental change are often studied through long-term trends rather than short-term instability. Honeybee colonies are especially suitable for studying these pressures because their foraging and resource accumulation integrate local climate, pollution and ecological conditions. Recent evidence suggests that rapid environmental fluctuations may impose biological costs, but largescale studies linking such fluctuations to production outcomes remain limited. Here we show that short-term temperature and hive-weight variability, along with particulate air pollution, are associated with lower honeybee production, using continuous monitoring data from colonies across Italy. These associations are heterogeneous: temperature variability and air pollution are most strongly linked to lower outcomes among highly productive colonies, whereas hive-weight instability is more strongly related to lower-production states. We also find that colonies managed through migratory beekeeping display weaker estimated associations with adverse conditions. These results identify high-frequency environmental variability as an underappreciated correlate of biological productivity. More broadly, they show how continuous biological monitoring can reveal emerging environmental risks and support adaptation strategies in managed pollination systems. JEL Classification: Q12 , Q16 , Q51 , Q52 , Q57 MSC Classification: 90B50 , 91B76 , 92-08 , 92-10 , 92-11 , 92B05 , 92B15</p>