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Bumblebees Being Crushed By Climate Change
sciencehabit writes: As the climate changes, plants and animals are on the move. So far, many are redistributing in a similar pattern: As habitat that was once too cold warms up, species are expanding their ranges toward the poles, whereas boundaries closer to the equator have remained more static. Bumblebees, however, appear to be a disturbing exception, according to a new study (abstract) . A comprehensive look at dozens of species finds that many North American and European bumblebees are failing to "track" warming by colonizing new habitats north of their historic range. Simultaneously, they are disappearing from the southern portions of their range.
...many North American and European bumblebees are failing to "track" warming by colonizing new habitats north of their historic range. ...
Maybe bumblebees select habitats to colonize based more upon the daylight patterns than temperatures, and that is why they are not following the warmth as it moves towards the poles?
Bumblebees are clearly Communist Ecoterrorists out to destroy our fine, God-fearing Capitalist agricultural industry. We should immediately start executing those evil climatologists. God and the Invisible Hand would never permit massive CO2 emissions to effect humans, and anyone that says so should be taken out and beaten to death.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I think that was the rough idea behind creating Africanized honeybees (killer bees). Not so much because of climate change, but just to be able to make honey in the tropics. And it worked, if you ignore the behavioral changes.
Dude - bees have a much more immediate and far larger problem than some speculative "Oh Noes teh Hooman iz changings teh Climatez!" correlation:
http://www.theguardian.com/env...
I bet if you fix that, you'll see the populations rebound. 'course, stopping idiots from spraying neurotoxin-based pesticides is nowhere near as sexy as the magic words "Climate Change", but you know? I think it'd help the bees out a hell of a lot more, and a hell of a lot faster...
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
As a close friend of bumblebees its hard seeing a familiar face disappear year after year. As for us in the hornet community, we're enjoying a resurgence the likes of which few have ever known. That picnic last month where we stung the living crap out of your dog? yes, good times..and that time you stepped on one of us while mowing the lawn in sandles? goodness we sure shared a chuckle while delivering inexorable sting after sting chasing you into the sliding glass door. Lets also not forget that time you reached into the mailbox! ho ho! surprised you didnt we? So in summation I guess what id like to say is that although the bumble bee and its kind gentle ways are slowly fading from existence, we still loathe, detest, and abhor each and every one of you giant two legged monsters.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I thought bumblebees are everywhere except maybe the desert?
From what I can tell Bumblebee is a genus, so there are about 250+ individual species, each with its own habitat and temperature range it's adapted too.
What seems to be happening is these habitats are getting too warm and the bees, instead of migrating towards cooler temperatures, are dying instead.
I stole this Sig
Bring in the undomesticated bee strains as pollinators.
The European /North American bees have been bread for docility for centuries to the point where we transport hives on trucks to pollinate where needed, is it any wonder that they are not migrating "naturally" they are for all intents and purposes domesticated, it's like expecting cows to migrate on their own.
I would expect that so called "killer" bees would be adapting better to climate change.
If I'm reading your multitude of comments on this subject correctly, you're saying, "fuck the wild honeybees, private industry will just make more of them and truck them around more and everything will be okay. yay capitalism!"
Is that about right?
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
I thought bumblebees are everywhere except maybe the desert?
Bombus sonorus -- the Sonoran Bumblebee -- is a common North American desert species.
To answer your question every critter has it's range. Even you do. Visited Antarctica recently? Or Mars?
If you were a bumblebee you'd have a range of about a quarter of a kilometer from your nest. In rare instances you might go as far as 800m distant. And therein you can see why climate change poses an adaptation challenge to bumblebees.
Bumblebee colonies die every winter. The old queen perishes and the new queens hibernate until the spring then disperse to a new nest site. So you can see that the species can only relocate northward at a fraction of a kilometer per year -- although it may have better luck moving vertically -- to higher altitudes where a convenient mountain is handy.
Species that adapt well to climate change either have individuals with large ranges, or they hitch a ride on critters that travel long distance. For example mosquito species have lifetime ranges on the order of 2-3 km, but the Asian Tiger Mosquito (Aedes albopictus), which breeds in small containers of water, usually spends its life within 100m or so of where it hatches. The Tiger Mosquito species was introduced to the US at Houston in 1985 and fifteen years later it was found all over the United States. How is this possible if an individual lives its entire life within a 100m radius of its hatching place? I went to a presentation at CDC Fort Collins where their arthropod borne disease doyen plotted out the spread of Ae albopictus and showed it followed the route of the US Interstate Highway system. Eggs and pregnant individuals hitched a ride. That's because cars and trucks provide things that mosquitoes are attracted to: people to bite and tiny pools of water trapped in spare tires or crevices of the machine for egg-laying. Note that Ae albopictus larvae are known to arrive in the US in a shipments of that "lucky bamboo" you can buy in Chinatown; those stalks hold maybe 20-30 ml of water. It takes a "container" with only a tablespoon or two of water to transport viable larvae.
Now back to bumblebees. Because bumblebee colonies are small (typically 50 individuals to 50,000 for honeybees) and temporary, bumblebees don't stockpile honey. So unlike honeybees humans have no reason to transport them deliberately. Likewise cars and trucks aren't attractive to bumblebees so it's rare that a new queen will get an accidental ride north with a human. So bumblebees are poorly adapted to a rapidly changing climate.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I know, no one likes to RTFA. But if you did: "One clue to the importance of climate: Bumblebee ranges began shrinking “even before the neonicotinoid pesticides came into play in the 1980s,” says ecologist and coauthor Alana Pindar, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Guelph in Canada."
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
Christ, it's like the 5th paragraph in: "One clue to the importance of climate: Bumblebee ranges began shrinking 'even before the neonicotinoid pesticides came into play in the 1980s,' says ecologist and coauthor Alana Pindar, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Guelph in Canada."
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
Indeed, this is the case of the cult science of Climate Change vs. the cult science of Evolution. Considering how many warming periods and ice ages bumblebees have survived, it's ludicrous to suggest that they can't adapt to a changing climate through basic "These bees survived because they moved further North. The further North, the more likely the hive is to split and thrive. Therefore, we can predict that the Bumblebees will, as a species, propagate North" which is the least-disagreeable pillar of evolutionary science .
Since the range migration started happening "even before the neonicotinoid pesticides came into play in the 1980s,” both of your theories seem to not be relevant to this particular article. Especially the wacky cellphone tower tinfoil hat guy.
Please at least try to RTFA next time.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
This is a basic tenet of the Church of the Invisible Hand. There's no problem that can't be solved by destroying nature and replacing it dollar-generating industries.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
It's normal when people are trying to poison the bees with flupyradifurone/neonics and simultaneously taking their habitat away. Of course they're dying out.
Climate change is another issue but you can't debate the dangers of bee toxins being sprayed on agricultural crops, and habitat loss is easy to demonstrate.
Too bad this audience is all basement dwellers, you guys should really take up bee friendly gardening.
$
If I'm reading your multitude of comments on this subject correctly, you're saying, "fuck the wild honeybees, private industry will just make more of them and truck them around more and everything will be okay. yay capitalism!"
Quiet please.
We are having a moment of silence for the wild cows.
You joke, but if you watch the excellent documentary "More Than Honey" (on netflix) you can see that due to the bee population being severely impacted in China they actually DO have people running around pollinating plants!
-- I speak only for myself.
I don't understand. For the sake of argument. How does an average temperature that's half a degree warmer than it was 40 years ago wipe out the Bummblebee's habitat. Do the flowers stop growing?
Slashdot climate change discussions, man. It's Friday, Friday.
What time does the men's rights activist clickbait get posted? Then the real fun starts.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Just like anything else in the natural world, small changes effect the outliers first. Bee colonies living on the edge, just getting by, die off if there is even a slight drop in survivability.
To answer your question; sometimes a reduction in food supply and sometimes the weather gets just a little too warm for bees already living on the edge of survivability. Either one can cause a colony to fail.
This Alanar Pindar sounds like a red pinko Commie (the last name totally gives it a way, can you imagine an Invisible Hand-fearing capitalist having a pinko name like "Pindar"). She should be fired and forced into some more appropriate Invisible Handy worthy occupation, instead of being an evil Communist out to ruin our economy and turn us all into universal healthcare-demanding socialist fuckers. Scientists, except where they are developing new means of producing massive profits, should all be taken out and put into work camps.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Expect the fearmongering and propaganda and hype to escalate until December in Paris.
Climate change was first noted in the early 1970's. The change itself has been ongoing and accelerating over the past 500 years or so. So, no the bees' problem does not predate climate change.
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
This has been considered. From the article:
"In addition to land-use changes, we investigated whether pesticide use affected shifts in thermal and latitudinal range limits among bumblebees. Spatially detailed, annual pesticide measurements, including neonicotinoid insecticides, were available for the United States after 1991. Neither total pesticide nor neonicotinoid applications there relate to observed shifts in bumblebee speciesâ(TM) historical ranges or thermal limits (table S1). Neonicotinoid effects known from individual and colony levels certainly contribute to pollinator declines and could degrade local pollination services. Neonicotinoid effects on bumblebees have been demonstrated experimentally using field-realistic treatments (20). These locally important effects do not âoescale upâ to explain cross-continental shifts along bumblebee speciesâ(TM) thermal or latitudinal limits. The timing of climate changeâ"related shifts among bumblebee species underscores this observation: Range losses from speciesâ(TM) southern limits and failures to track warming conditions began before widespread use of neonicotinoid pesticides (figs. S2 and S3). "
http://www.sciencemag.org/cont...