From Florida State University and the “correlation is not causation unless we want to blame climate change” department.
A stinging report: FSU research shows climate change a major threat to bumble bees
Research from a team of FSU scientists helps explain link between climate change and declining bumble bee populations
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — New research from a team of Florida State University scientists and their collaborators is helping to explain the link between a changing global climate and a dramatic decline in bumble bee populations worldwide.
In a study published Friday in the journal Ecology Letters, researchers examining three subalpine bumble bee species in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains found that, for some bumble bees, a changing climate means there just aren’t enough good flowers to go around.
The team examined the bees’ responses to direct and indirect climate change effects.
“Knowing whether climate variation most affects bumble bees directly or indirectly will allow us to better predict how bumble bee populations will cope with continued climate change,” said FSU postdoctoral researcher Jane Ogilvie, the study’s lead investigator. “We found that the abundances of all three bumble bee species were mostly affected by indirect effects of climate on flower distribution through a season.”
As the global climate changes gradually over time, delicately poised seasonal cycles begin to shift. In the Rocky Mountains, this means earlier snowmelts and an extended flowering season.
On the surface, these climatic changes may seem like a boon to bumble bees — a longer flowering season might suggest more opportunity for hungry bees to feed. However, Ogilvie and her collaborators found that as the snow melts earlier and the flowering season extends, the number of days with poor flower availability increases, resulting in overall food shortages that are associated with population decline.
“When researchers think about flower effects on bees, they typically consider floral abundance to be the most important factor, but we found that the distribution of flowers throughout a season was most important for bumble bees,” Ogilvie said. “The more days with good flower availability, the more bees can forage and colonies can grow, and the bigger their populations become. We now have longer flowering seasons because of earlier snowmelt, but floral abundance has not changed overall. This means we have more days in a season with poor flower availability.”
Declining bumble bee populations globally have long been cause for alarm among conservationists, who see the buzzy pollinators as a bellwether for the malign effects of a changing climate.
Ogilvie said these most recent findings contribute to a growing body of evidence for the grave ecological consequences of climate change.
“Declining bumble bee populations should be a warning about the expansive detrimental effects of climate change,” Ogilvie said. “Bumble bees have annual life cycles, so their populations show responses to change quickly, and many species live in higher altitude and latitude areas where the change in climate is most dramatic. The effects of climate change on bumble bees should give us pause.”
The damage inflicted by climate change on global pollinator populations is of particular concern for scientists, as these species are crucial to agricultural productivity and the propagation of natural plant communities.
As researchers work toward a better understanding of climate change and its ecological effects, the link between pollinator health and shifting climate processes is becoming impossible to ignore.
“Pollinator species around the world have been declining, but we are still learning about what might be causing declines,” said FSU Professor of Biological Science Nora Underwood, a coauthor of the study. “Although not all species are influenced in the same way, I was excited to be part of this study because we now have long-term data that shows changing climate is influencing bumble bees.”
While this research helps to confirm the long-presumed connection between climate change and bumble bee population decline, Ogilvie said that the findings indicate a more difficult path for conservationists than previously anticipated.
“I’m afraid that this research shows conservation will be even more complicated than expected,” she said. “In addition to the response of the target species, our findings suggest that we should be considering how a species’ food resources might be responding to climate change. For bumble bees in particular, we need to make sure that they have enough flowers available during the entire season.”
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Meanwhile, in other science:
Pesticide reduces bumblebee colony initiation and increases probability of population extinction
Abstract
Pollinators are in global decline and agricultural pesticides are a potential driver of this. Recent studies have suggested that pesticides may significantly impact bumblebee colonies—an important and declining group of pollinators. Here, we show that colony-founding queens, a critical yet vulnerable stage of the bumblebee lifecycle, are less likely to initiate a colony after exposure to thiamethoxam, a neonicotinoid insecticide. Bombus terrestris queens were exposed to field-relevant levels of thiamethoxam and two natural stressors: the parasite Crithidia bombi and varying hibernation durations. Exposure to thiamethoxam caused a 26% reduction in the proportion of queens that laid eggs, and advanced the timing of colony initiation, although we did not detect impacts of any experimental treatment on the ability of queens to produce adult offspring during the 14-week experimental period. As expected from previous studies, the hibernation duration also had an impact on egg laying, but there was no significant interaction with insecticide treatment. Modelling the impacts of a 26% reduction in colony founding on population dynamics dramatically increased the likelihood of population extinction. This shows that neonicotinoids can affect this critical stage in the bumblebee lifecycle and may have significant impacts on population dynamics.
Bees play a vital role as pollinators in both agricultural and natural systems1,2,3,4. However, there is increasing concern about the state of wild bee populations. Nearly 10% of European bee species are currently considered threatened5 and bumblebees are declining on a global scale5,6,7,8,9. The cause of these declines is thought to be a combination of factors, particularly habitat loss10, parasites and diseases11,12,13, invasive species14, and climate change15,16. Pesticide use is also considered a major threat to wild bees17,18,19,20, and both laboratory21,22,23,24,25,26, semi-field27,28,29,30,31,32,33 and field studies34,35,36have found negative impacts of pesticides on bumblebee behaviour, reproduction and colony success. However, information on the impacts of pesticides on the key life history stages of wild bees is still lacking. Bumblebees, like solitary bees, have an annual lifecycle whereby reproductive females (queens) initiate a colony in the spring37. Bumblebee queens are functionally solitary at this stage and do not have a colony to buffer them from environmental stress. Success depends entirely on the queen’s survival and ability to initiate a colony and, as such, this represents a critical but vulnerable period in the lifecycle. Although bumblebee queens are likely to be exposed to a range of pesticides throughout their lifecycle, particularly when foraging in the early spring on flowering crops such as OSR, to date there has been no research on the impacts of pesticides on founding queens and their ability to initiate a colony. Rundlöf et al.34 found that neonicotinoid treatment of OSR crops resulted in a lack of brood-cell building in solitary bees, but the mechanism remained unexplored. Negative impacts of neonicotinoids on the reproduction of the honeybee Apis mellifera queen have also been found38,39, but honeybee colonies are perennial and the way in which this relates to the annual cycle in bumblebees remains unknown. However, given these results, it is vital that we understand the potential impacts of pesticides on bumblebee queens40,26 and the resultant implications for wild populations.
We examined the impact of thiamethoxam (a neonicotinoid insecticide) exposure on colony-founding bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) queens. Neonicotinoids are the most widely used class of pesticide in the world41 and thiamethoxam is one of three neonicotinoids currently under a European Union usage moratorium for flowering, bee-attractive crops. Neonicotinoids have been implicated in the decline of wild bees20, butterflies42 and other taxa43. A range of regulations on the use of neonicotinoids have also recently come into force in North America. Therefore, research on the risks to beneficial insects associated with exposure to these compounds has important global policy implications.
In addition to the potential threat from pesticide exposure, bumblebee queens are faced with a range of environmental stressors that can reduce their survival and fitness. Before initiating a colony in the spring, queens must first survive hibernation over winter, during which time they can lose up to 80% of their fat reserves44, which may make them vulnerable to additional stress. Little is known about the overwintering survival of bumblebee queens in the wild, but studies in the laboratory have shown that a range of factors, such as pre-hibernation weight45,46, hibernation duration46 and the genotype of the queen and her mate47,48, can be important. Furthermore, exposure to parasites and pesticides can also impact hibernation survival40 and parasites have been shown to affect the post-hibernation success of queens. For example, Crithidia bombi, a prevalent trypanosome parasite of bumblebees, has a context-dependent impact on its queen host49. Under laboratory conditions, parasitized queens lost up to 11% more mass during hibernation and had up to a 40% reduction in fitness compared with uninfected queens49.
In natural environments, bumblebee queens face not only potential pesticide impacts, but also other simultaneous environmental stressors. To reflect this, we investigated the effects of thiamethoxam exposure on B. terrestris queens and tested for interactions with two natural environmental stressors: infection with the parasite C. bombi and variation in hibernation duration. To extrapolate our results to field populations, we used a Bayesian framework to assess their implications for population sustainability.
Full study – open access: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0260-1
Color me unimpressed about the climate change to bumblebee link. Otherwise, how would we have bees today after the Medieval Warm Period?
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Jon Entine addressed this disparity between field and lab research in a series of articles at the Genetic Literacy Project, and specifically summarized two dozen key field studies.
“Some, but not all, results from lab research have claimed neonics cause health problems in honeybees and wild bees, endangering the world food supply. This has been widely and often breathlessly echoed in the popular media—remember the execrably reported Time cover story on “A World Without Bees.” But the doses and time of exposure have varied dramatically from lab study to lab study, so many entomologists remain skeptical of these sweeping conclusions. Field studies have consistently shown a different result—in the field, neonics seem to pose little or no harm. The overwhelming threat to bee health, entomologists now agree, is a combination of factors led by the deadly Varroa destructor mite, the miticides used to control them, and bee practices. Relative to these factors, neonics are seen as relatively inconsequential.”
“The broader context of the bee health controversy is also important to understand; bees are not in sharp decline—not in North America nor in Europe, where neonics are under a temporary ban that shows signs of becoming permanent, nor worldwide. Earlier this week, Canada reported that its honeybee colonies grew 10 percent year over year and now stand at about 800,000. That’s a new record, and the growth tracks the increased use of neonics, which are critical to canola crops in Western Canada, where 80 percent of the nation’s honey originates.”
https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/the-alarmist-beehive/
Blossoming is seasonal. Bees are not. All species of pollinators have several alternate food sources that allow them to survive from year to year. Unless all of these are identified and accounted for in the study, it is all just wool-gathering. When I was at the University of Texas there was a beehive kept on the top floor of Welch Hall (the Chemistry building). Those bees thrived quite well on dregs of soft drink cans, which were quite plentiful around the university all year round.
So proclaimith: FSU postdoctoral researcher Jane Ogilvie:
It is really becoming quite obvious to me that a big majority of the present day research-publishing females have serious mental limitations whenever their “research projects” require them to utilize …… common sense thinking, logical reasoning and/or intelligent deductions.
“DUH”, whenever there is “earlier snowmelt” then of course one can claim there will also be a “longer flowering season”, ….. but only if said “flowering season” includes all the different species of flowering plants.
And “DUH”, the only way to increase the “floral abundance” in a particular locale …. would be to increase the number, quantity or acreage of one (1) or more species of flowering plants.
And it is asinine to claim that …… “earlier snowmelt means that there will be more days in a season with poor flower availability” …….. unless you also claim there is a species of flowering plant that absolutely, positively will only “bloom” if there is snow covering the ground.
They don’t define “earlier snowmelt”, you know. That makes it a trigger word for panic attacks. It also tells us that they don’t take weather into account at all.
Earlier snowmelt? Would these “researchers” like to see the snow on my front steps and front lawn in March and April this year? Seriously, what planet are they living on?
I’d just like to point out that the oldest bee fossil found so far was discovered in 2006 in a mine in Burma. https://www.livescience.com/4255-oldest-bee-fossil-creates-buzz.html
It seems that bees, while rather delicate critters themselves, are a lot more resilient as an insect genus than these researchers can possibly imagine. They also haven’t taken into account the halictids, a very pretty group, which are good wild pollinators that very vaguely resemble wasps but are definitely bees.
The narrow focus of these researchers is even more clouded than I had realized, and it is impaired by their need to be politically correct and blame the Bogey Man for everything that’s wrong. I am tired of their sheer ignorance, but I realize that we need to know just how ignorant they really are.
Both studies ignore the fact that the number of bee colonies in the US peaked in the mid 40’s and had been steadily declining for decades prior to the discovery of CCD, and the number has risen since it was identified. They also ignore that worldwide, bee populations went up 60% from 1961 to 2013. There’s just no correlation, much less causation.
A significant portion of beehives die off every winter. Most of us in the general public didn’t know this more than a decade ago. When that percentage went up, the press announced it as if almost all die-offs were due to CCD, and has been pushing the claim of an imminent eradication of bees and subsequent damage to the food supply ever since.
Government funded science requires that research ignore any results that do not support the predetermined political conclusion. Today’s scientists and intellectuals are very similar to the educated clergy of the monarchs of yore who provided legitimacy to the king’s right to rule by divine providence. It is much easier to bilk the peasants by having them voluntarily give up their money than by taking it at sword point.
Do climate scientists find these bees chained to areas, unable to fly and locate new pollen sources? Are there invisible bee fences (like one uses with dogs—wires and cute tiny collars on the bees)? I am appalled that biologist have so very little understanding of nature. I’d ask if these people ever actually went outside, but the answer is obviously, “NO”.
Conspicuously absent in all of these climate change/species impact studies is a quantification of exactly how the climate has changed in the location of the study. While we correctly point out that correlation is not causation, we are not even aware if there is any correlation!
At least 100 years of climate data should be provided and considered, just to determine if the climate has changed beyond the variability of weather.
Does anyone weep for the extinct Rocky Mountain Locust? http://eol.org/pages/500065/overview
Not me.
They also seem to have over-looked the swarms of bumblebees within a mile of their campus.
IMO the research is not (quite) as crazy as it sounds, once you leave out the CAGW nonsense.
For bumblebees the problem is not the beginnning of the flowering season but its end. After early July most plants are busy making seeds and fruits. The supply of nectar inevitably gives out, as this recent research on bees and the silver lime tree indicates.
http://figures-of-speech.com/2017/09/scrapbook.htm#f
If we want to help bee colonies we should encourage the spread of late flowering plants that, if the season really is extending, whether from weather pattern or climate changes, allow bees to continue feeding as late as possible.
I don’t know what’s available where you live, but in my area there are plenty of late-blooming wildflowers that are abundant honey sources. Examples are compass plant, sunflowers, wild asters, spurge, listaria, coreopsis, goldenrod, milkweed, lady’s thumb and thistles, to name just a few. Since it’s October, most of the summer flowers are gone, but there are still available the flowering plants listed above as well as others that will go on until the first frost. I suggest that you become more familiar with the wildflower species in your area and do a survey of them.
Also, all bees collect nectar and pollen. They don’t just “feed” on it at the plant in situ. Bumblebees tend to make nests rather than hives and while the queen will winter over underground, she will still need food (honey and pollen) to get her through winter.
Does it really ?
They obviously must have data on flower abundance to make that statement, so why don’t they give statistics of the change in the number of good flower days rather than infering what they think it implies about the number of poor days and then adding a second level of unstated but implied assumptions about what this means about good days.
This is such contorted logic to arrive at a catastrophic conclusion that I suspect they have not even looked at the what the data actually shows, assuming they actually have any data.
Yes, really, I haven’t seen that much pure ignorance about a subject in a long time. I do not believe these so-called researchers ever go outside unless they are forced to.
Oh, I am sure they have data, but most likely that data has been “adjusted,” like most pro-AGW climate data. (READ: “FAKED”). How can any reliable conclusions be made when so much of the data has been falsified?
Moreover, why should we believe anything these “scientists” say?
Is this UK study the one that selected results they wanted ? And had to give the whole 1000 pages to the sponsoring entity who discovered their bias ?
There may be a prior post here or at JoNovas .
But we were told we had to ban lawn pesticides because of the decline of bumble bees. Now global warming is causing the decline of bumble bees. Next week will be the debate Coke VS Pepsi is causing the decline of bumble bees.
More CO2 means bigger plants, which would presumably mean more flowers during their respective blooming seasons.
What climate change I always ask?
Oh I know- fewer tornadoes.
If anyone wants to attract bumblebees allow some belladona to grow. I have a large patch that was loaded with them. Belladona is very poisonous I understand however. I live in western NY. Warm summer, cold winter.
There will be more CCD this coming NH Winter-Spring. It will be largely from COLD and unseasonal weather. As a plant pathologist etc., I have only contempt for this unscientific paper, but it is all an too common example. Commercial bee numbers are rocketing up where markets are good….
“As a plant pathologist etc., I have only contempt for this unscientific paper, but it is all an too common example.”
I agree, and I’m not a plant pathologist, just someone who hikes a lot with a camera, and makes notes about what I see. So how do people like me, who know better, and you, who have backup for disputing the nonsense in that paper, put a stop to it?
I’m getting seriously tired of the utter baloney I see published as a means of getting more cash.
A valid study has consistent results, shown over time. There’s nothing valid in anything I’m seeing.
I guess maybe the bumble bees up north, here in Central WI are hardier that FSU bumble bees. I can look out over a small patch of New England Aster, and watch a dozen or more bees working the flowers. Or maybe those “bees” are a look-alike species that are not in fact, bees. But factor in that the Northern tier of states are colder than FL will ever bee (sic) in a thousand lifetimes, global warming or not.
There are 20,000 species of bees.
Most species don’t live in hives. Bumblebees live in nests.
If you want SUPER-pollinators in your yard, spend $10 to put up a Mason bee condo, and they’ll move right in. (Plus, they are very mild-mannered; they make great neighbors.)
https://www.google.com/search?q=mason+bee+house&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwigvMT-itDWAhVmqlQKHaW-CCUQsxgIKA&biw=1229&bih=587
We have a large garden which also includes various wild flowers chosen to attract pollinators. We have had this for over 20 years. What I notice is that the abundance of different types of bumblebee vary from year to year. The populations vary depending on weather especially if there is a late freeze. The warm winter has the least impact on bumble bees.
My observation is that bumble bee populations are robust in areas where they have habitat that includes wild flowers. Many of the flowers people plant around their homes are not friendly to bumble bees or pollinators in general. Often the flowers people plant are bred to have certain shape and color of flower or even to produce less pollen so that cut flowers don’t make as much of a mess in the house or vase – for example dropping yellow dust.
In farming areas, bumble bee populations are often low. This I think is due to intense farming and use of pesticides and use of herbicides. The wild flowers that the bumble bees need are killed. Even if they are farming something that has a flower that is attractive to bumble bees, they periodically use pesticide and kill the pollinators. But perhaps more importantly, the crop all blooms at the same time providing food for only a short time. Then there is no additional food given all the wild flowers (weeds) have been killed.
If they would like to keep wild pollinators in an area, the farmers should plant small areas with various wild flowers which are native to the area, attractive to pollinators and bloom at different times during the year that offer oasis to the pollinators. For example, along fences or ditches adjacent to the field. Then be very careful not to get pesticides or herbicides on those oasis and also be certain not to use pesticides during periods when a crop is blooming (should they plant something that blooms and is attractive to bees).
If the world were to get warmer, what would happen is that some bumble bees would do better than others and the populations would shift. Overall, I don’t think it would not reduce bumble bee numbers. Certainly warmer winters usually mean more bumble bees in the spring.
There is currently no problem with bees in Australia. How can this be as Australia must be ‘affected’ by climate change the same as any other country?
I was just about to say something out of ignorance.
I was going to say that bees are not native to North America.
I paused and checked first.
I was wrong.
https://youtu.be/HJd04Trvm_I
It is the honey bee that is not native to North America.
To return North America to it’s pristine, before Columbus state, we need to develop a pesticide that will only kill honey bees?
(I think a carpenter bee ate my sarc tag)
MODS! I don’t know how Doc Brown got in there. Please replace with this if possible.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/475348
“…exposed the queens to field-relevant levels…”
Umm, excuse me, I thought the Worker bees went out into the fields, and the Queens stayed back in the hive and made more bees. Hives are not found in the fields being treated with pesticides, as a rule. Hives are found in Trees, or, in commercial agriculture, in portable hives on a truck.
Don’t let them sneak this by us!