Only hardier species can adapt to global warming
Story submitted by Eric Worrall
Another claim that its worse than we thought – this time warmer temperatures are killing the bees.
According to Scott Groom, PhD student at Flinders University, mathematical modelling has connected changes in bee populations over the past 20,000 years across the South Pacific region, and exceptionally large declines in bee populations, with changes in temperature.
Groom says that prior to the ice age when temperatures rose, many bee species migrated to cooler areas, with only one hardy species able to adapt to the warmer temperature.
“They’re almost canaries in the coal mine, you can see that they’re going to be the first sort of species to be impacted by changes in climate,” Groom said.
The study, “Parallel responses of bees to Pleistocene climate change in three isolated archipelagos of the southwestern Pacific” can be found at the link below.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1785/20133293.abstract
Abstract
The impacts of glacial cycles on the geographical distribution and size of populations have been explored for numerous terrestrial and marine taxa. However, most studies have focused on high latitudes, with only a few focused on the response of biota to the last glacial maximum (LGM) in equatorial regions. Here, we examine how population sizes of key bee fauna in the southwest Pacific archipelagos of Fiji, Vanuatu and Samoa have fluctuated over the Quaternary. We show that all three island faunas suffered massive population declines, roughly corresponding in time to the LGM, followed by rapid expansion post-LGM. Our data therefore suggest that Pleistocene climate change has had major impacts across a very broad tropical region. While other studies indicate widespread Holarctic effects of the LGM, our data suggest a much wider range of latitudes, extending to the tropics, where these climate change repercussions were important. As key pollinators, the inferred changes in these bee faunas may have been critical in the development of the diverse Pacific island flora. The magnitude of these responses indicates future climate change scenarios may have alarming consequences for Pacific island systems involving pollinator-dependent plant communities and agricultural crops.
I don’t have access to the full text, so I don’t know whether other possible causes of population crashes, such as bee killing Varroa mites, were considered.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa .
Varroa mites were originally discovered in Asia, but have since spread worldwide. Some bees are resistant to Varroa mites, because they have evolved hygiene behaviour, which removes and kills the mites.
westcoasttiger says:
May 9, 2014 at 11:46 pm
..” I don’t know why you’d feel guilty.”
=================
Well, you couldn’t, because I don’t.
(Any misunderstandings understood, or not).
Coal mine canaries may be an endangered species.
The abstract says:
Show me where anyone said that the ‘paper’ has anything to do with Apis mellifera? Here is how I introduced my comment.
“How was this possible in Australia? Next time you hear that global warming is killing European bees you can show them this. ” The ‘this’ referred to the subsequent extract from an article about the bee being introduced from Europe nearly 200 years ago. I just wanted to point out an example of a European bee surviving ‘rapid’ climate change between export and final arrival in Australia. THAT IS ALL.
The abstract has EVERYTHING to do with global warming since it mentions “POST-LGM” and “future climate change scenarios”.
Most here have not read the paper because it is PAYWALLED.
One of the authors was quoted on the press release itself. One could also say that Groom was guilty of hijacking the press release. Here is Groom in the press release.
Finally I am aware of the following, but since Groom mentioned future ‘climate change’ and speculated on it’s impact in the paper’s abstract AND the press release then it’s fair game?
Jimbo says: May 10, 2014 at 2:13 am
Well, I suppose I should just ignore your ill-mannered rant, but you know Jimbo, you are acting rather like an arse. Please do me the favour of ignoring any of my future comments. I will certainly scroll over any over yours.
Thanks to all the commentators who got off the honey bee jag and concentrated on the actual paper and what it may or may not say about the threat of climate change to bees. The only thing that I would add is that I don’t think colder temperatures per se have anything to do with the results. Tropical Pacific islands should not have been very cold during the last glacial maximum, but a colder climate may have been drier and this may have resulted in reduced habitat for the halictid bees on the islands. The current populations may be restricted to the higher elevations because of thermal stress, or because of human habitat alteration in the low lands and competition with introduced species (that is usually how the similar distribution of island bird endemics is interpreted). In short, lots of handwaving, but no real data. Unfortunately, this is true of most of the CAGW literature.
Bingo! Had they not mentioned FUTURE climate change impacts (speculation) we would not be discussing it here. It is mentioned twice with Groom quoted making the claim in the abstract and press release (hijacked).
Thanks for clearing up you initial statement. By the way I’m glad you like my arse. 😉
Maybe not but that last sentence above reminded me of something I read a week ago. It was published in 1995. It is a press release about a paper. I can’t find the paper or abstract.
Here is an earlier abstract by Groom. The abstract is absent of speculation about future climate change impacts. I don’t know what the full paper says as it looks like it’s paywalled. So imagine if this was featured on WUWT, I doubt there would have been such friction among commenters.
I live in NE Colo. Springs. For some reason, we have very few honey bees near our home (and our fruit trees suffer because of that). Don’t think global warming is the cause — it’s always been that way since our house was built in 1999. I like bees because their usually very friendly — not like wasps. When I was in grade school, I was always being stung by wasps — think they asked my mom if I could come out and play with them. And wasps HURT when they sting. We do have quite a few bumblebees out here, which are also non-aggressive. We had a bumblebee nest in our front grass near a flower garden. I’d just wait until night to cut the grass over the nest. When the grass got too long, they’d have problems finding the nest entrance. Other than that, I could be working in the garden a few feet from the nest, and the bees ignored me — felt like they knew I was supposed to be out there.
I got an Orchard.
I got bees.
I got mason bees.
I got leaf cutter bees.
I got bumble bees.
But I got few honey bees.
Not the tempratur whot am killin dem but the dam insecticide’s
The insecticide’s used by the gardeners to pro tect dem dailyers.
Had a beehive decades ago. Still look at flowers to get an idea of how well they are doing. Since the “decline”, honeybees populations vary dramatically yr to yr, from mostly absent to normal. This yr in western Maryland numbers are close to normal, even tho the winter was relentless.
only a few focused on the response of biota to the last glacial maximum (LGM) in equatorial regions.
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I live out on a rock in the middle of the ocean in the equatorial region………..
The only thing that affects our bees is cold weather……..
When a front comes all the way down here…and it’s cold enough…there’s dead bees everywhere
If there is a bee out there, it will find me and sting me. I kid you not. I was sitting by a pond one evening next to a guy I was kinda hot over. The only thing that crawled up my shirt was a bee. And yes it stung me. There are still plenty of bees around because I am still getting stung. Guys…step up your game.
Pam, that was sad. I know when I was preg I was attending the garden in a long dress, picked up a hapless bee that I sat on later. Didn’t hurt me that much. I like bees, but my ex was terrified of them and waved them dramatically away, stupid B. They say bees like people that like them.
Lewis P Buckingham says: May 10, 2014 at 3:02 am
“The time has come for us Australian Taxpayers to insist that publicly funded Australian Universities stop paywalling their research.”
I absolutely agree. Publications by US Government employees are not paywalled thanks to one of those rare Acts of Congress that actually benefit the taxpayer. I think Australia should do the same and extending it to all government-funded research would be a good thing.
Lewis P Buckingham says: May 10, 2014 at 3:24 pm “All you need to kill bees is a cold snap…”
This is true of honeybees that live in hives where they maintain the temperature well above ambient, but not likely for solitary bees. Halictid bees live at ambient – usually a single female makes a linear nest in a cavity and provisions a series of cells one by one. They are living at or near air temperature all of their lives. Cold weather may restrict their foraging, and they might starve during a long cold spell, but a cold snap won’t knock them off like happens to honeybees.
Jimbo points out some research indicating cooling in the Tropics during the last glacial age, but if the rainforests survived, then I doubt freezing conditions were common in the Tropics except at high elevation. Could be wrong, though, I often am.
I had a swarm that were interested in my air brick outside my bedroom. I called in specialist help. He said if I didn’t stop them, I’d have trouble in the double cavity of my house.
No bee will depart the hive until after the queen vacates. I tried insecticides, no avail, (they are immune of most household insecticides, but putting a water hose on them got them worried and fell to the ground. The next day they had all disappeared. But there was some worries about a mite killing hives. And when bees are imported to Australia they are checked by customs and checked for disease, I think before exporting one has to have clearance before being imported by different countries. But cold weather seems them disappear as their are generally no flowers or plants they can collect pollen off.
How did they get that South Pacific data? Who counts bees with any sought of accuracy. Of course they don’t like cold weather, but they survive for the next spring and summer from stored honey or sugar and water.
Regarding the tropics in Northern Australia. The last glacial period, saw fewer rainforests, a lower tree line and no Monsoon belt. On the separation from PNG, the local Aboriginals stayed around the river and creek lands that emerged and sea PNG was joined and so was Tasmania from the mainland. But correct me, they didn’t have hive bees before colonization they were imported. Wild bees don’t sting, and their nests were robbed of honey by Aborigines. Australia was certainly not ice bound with only a 5C lower temps.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/study-strengthens-link-between-neonicotinoids-and-collapse-of-honey-bee-colonies/
The whole thing about fake “canary in a coal mine” scenario is that people are attempting to develop a litmus test that they can attach to something that people really value, to cause interest int he outcome. The fact is no one cared about the canary as long as it was alive. But we care about bees, glaciers, etc, a lot more. And everyone wants to tie it into their field so their field gets the attention. Canaries though, well there’s no canary lobby.
I honestly think these prophets of doom, are not only politically tainted with hidden agendas, but are like the prophets of doom in ancient times. One would not offer a paper to someone to peer review if you didn’t know they would be likely to reject it. I choice little club of fraudsters.
This story and the majority of subsequent comments have completely misinterpreted the research. If you want to read the paper, email the author and they will send it to you!