Abstract:Three years pesticide residues monitoring data in pollen, wax, bees and honey from sentinel apiaries in different agroecosystems in Uruguay were used for meta analysis. Support vector machines (SVM) algorithm was used previously to classify environments and is the basis of the present work. An useful indicator was developed to classify the contamination status of both beehives and associated environment. The index is a quotient between hive simple demographic parameters and the sum of toxic units for each pesticide found in it. The Agroecology Environment Quality quotient (AEQ) can be scaled in three different levels. When it is below 1, the hive will hardly develop in such environment. AEQ values between 1 and 2 indicate that the hive could have some restrictions to develop in such environment due to pesticide contamination but probably it will be productive. In the cases where the index is above 2, the hive will develop well in the environment where it is located. AEQ permits simultaneously to obtain different information. These are:the surveillance of good agricultural practices accomplishment in agroecosystems, the selection of the best environment to perform apicultural activities as well as to monitor the productivity and development of the beehives.
