According to new research published this week in Biology Letters, temperature changes have had a negative impact on bumblebees over the last 120 years. Changes in temperature had a more negative impact than other factors.
Plants and crops rely on bumblebees for pollination. The M'Gonigle Lab at Simon Fraser University is where the study lead is a Masters student.
Jackson and her colleagues looked at records on 46 bumblebee species over the course of a century. The models were created to estimate the effects of climate and land-use variables on species'Occupancy, a measure of where species are found. Through time, six bumblebee species decreased, 22 increased and the rest were stable.
The post-industrial revolution period saw an increase in temperature and precipitation. The effects of temperature changes on bumblebees were mostly negative, with 37 of the 46 species showing greater declines or less positive increases inOccupancy under observed temperature changes.
Nine bumblebee species showed declines that were related to changing temperatures. The team did not find any patterns in the other factors studied, such as precipitation and only one species declined due to floral resources.
Both floral resources and precipitation did not go as planned. Half of the bumblebee species were negatively impacted by changes in precipitation, while the other half were positively impacted.
Changing temperatures are thought to be a major environmental factor in bumblebee community composition.
bumblebee species likely vary in their future responses to land-use and climate change, so it's important to prioritize individual species, taking into account their unique climate and habitat preferences."
The Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California is one of the study's partners.
More information: Hanna M. Jackson et al, Climate change winners and losers among North American bumblebees, Biology Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0551 Journal information: Biology Letters
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