Climate change could weigh on the size of bees and bumblebees, according to a study published this Wednesday in the journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society
B.
In the United States, researchers studied more than 20,000 insects of the bee family over eight years in the Rocky Mountains to study how they reacted to climate change.
According to the study, the mountain area from which the samples are taken is “particularly vulnerable” to climate alterations.
The researchers found that the abundance of specialized nest comb diggers and large bees decreased with rising temperatures.
The number of smaller soil-nesting bees is increasing, however.
Bumblebees particularly at risk
Thus, the study suggests that climate change “could radically reshape bee communities”.
Populations of bumblebees, leafcutter bees and mason bees are notably declining, with bumblebees currently being the most threatened by global warming.
These results are consistent with other studies showing that bumblebees, the dominant pollinators in many ecosystems, have lower heat tolerance.
The size of their body and their behavior at nest would make them more vulnerable to a warming climate.
insects in danger
In general, researchers fear that global warming will have “cascading effects on pollination and ecosystem functioning”.
The loss of larger bees, which fly further to forage, could lead to a reduction in long-distance pollination.
Insects are the main pollinators in the world: 75% of the 115 main crops (cocoa, coffee, almonds, cherries) depend on animal pollination.
In a 2019 report, scientists concluded that almost half of all insect species in the world are in decline, and that a third could be extinct by the end of the century.
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