Buzzing through Change: How Bees can Adapt to Shifting Climate by Becoming more Social
Countless studies have reminded us of the importance of pollinators in the balance of ecosystems: pesticides and other aggressive agriculture techniques are the main threats to the well-being of the bee population. Yet, we must look at the whole picture: global warming has already started to irreversibly impact ecosystems, and bees are no exception. A study published by Ostwald et al. in The Journal of Animal Ecology laid out the strategies and measures that various pollinators might adopt in response of extreme weather conditions that arise due to climate change. This article aims to unveil the amazing creativity of bees when under stress caused by the climate.
The study points out that social bees such as honeybees and bumblebees are surprisingly adaptive to climatic changes in their surroundings. By adjusting their behavior, they are able to mitigate the negative effects of droughts, rainfall, and even extreme heat.
Stonger Together: is Sociality the Key to Survival for Bees?
Sociality in bee colonies allows for a multitude of strategies if resources become scarce; bees can effectively communicate the location and quality of any resources in an area, allowing them to exploit them during droughts or after destructive storms. Furthermore, storing small amounts of food within the hives provides a very handy buffer in the occurrence of poor foraging periods. Highly social bees are also capable of covering larger distances than their solitary counterparts: according to a study published by Kendall et al. on Ecology, some species of bees can potentially forage as far as around 10 km away from their hives if necessary.
Augochlorella aurata, a type of bee that has been observed to use fanning to cool down the nest.
Photo by Heather Holm
But resource scarcity isn’t the only threat that social bees can mitigate with their behaviors; especially in temperate regions, extreme heat events have become a more and more common occurrence. Several species of bees have been observed to adopt specific behaviors to maintain an ideal temperature inside their hives: fanning at the entrances can help reduce temperatures inside the nest. As a measure against particularly elevated temperatures, some bees opt for intensive water collection: after absorbing some of the excess heat inside the hive, the collected water can be stored in view of particularly dry periods. On the other hand, if it gets too cold, some bees tend to cluster in groups to maintain a higher body temperature.
Bees clustering to keep their body temperature up. Photo from Buddha Bee Apiary, Alfredo Salkeld
Climate Change: how will Bees Adapt?
Bees have undoubtedly evolved to manage local climate variability with their social behavior. However, the current threats global warming poses are unprecedented; what effects could these changes have on the balance of bee colonies?
In a world where temperature fluctuations and unpredictable precipitation undermine the balance of so many ecosystems, a shift towards more social nesting appears to be the most likely outcome. However, excessive dependence on group coordination implies the creation of brand-new threats to colonies, such as exposure to pesticides while on long-distance foraging trips. In this light, some may say that solitary bees may prove more resilient under highly variable conditions.
The response of highly complex ecological systems to the disruptive effects of climate change often proves to be uncertain. What we can be sure of, is that anything that harms the survival of bee colonies, harms the global systems that depend on them; slowing down the destruction that we are causing is the only way that we can help our fuzzy allies.
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