The effect of environmental temperature on bee activity at strawberry farms

Abstract

The response of bees to changing environmental temperatures has implications for pollination in natural and agricultural systems, with rising average temperatures and increased environmental stochasticity predicted to cause pollinator population declines. A growing body of evidence for the role of native bees in crop pollination suggests that understanding the temperatures at which bees are active is important for maintaining agricultural productivity under climate change. This study used two methods to sample bees at strawberry farms in south-eastern Australia, matching activity observations with microclimate temperature to understand how temperature impacts bee activity. Apart from Apis mellifera (introduced), two native bees were identified, Lasioglossum spp. and Exoneura robusta. Apis mellifera was the most abundant species across all environmental temperatures, and E. robusta the least. Visual and sweep-netting survey results found activity temperature range was broader for A. mellifera (16.21-41.05°C) than Lasioglossum (16.49-38.91°C) and E. robusta (26-38.82°C). The results suggest that activity temperature varies among bee species, with potential implications for community composition and plant pollination under climate change.

Advances and knowledge gaps on climate change impacts on honey bees and beekeeping: A systematic review

“…However, despite that net effects were generally negative and neutral for most response variables analyzed, in some cases temperature increase can positively affect food reserves (e.g., increase honey production, advance of honey harvest days, increase hive weight, and increase in nectar volume; Gajardo‐Rojas et al., 2022; Langowska et al., 2017; Pătruică et al., 2019; Bordier et al., 2017; Gil‐Lebrero et al., 2020), reduce diseases (e.g., reduce chalkbrood, decrease deformed wing virus, increase Varroa mite fall; Nürnberger et al., 2019; Rowland et al., 2021; Bordier et al., 2017; Hillayová et al., 2022), affect positively the gene expression (e.g., improve thermo‐tolerance of workers; Al‐Ghzawi et al., 2022), increase the mitochondrial diversity (Cánovas et al., 2014), favor the geographic distribution (Castellanos‐Potenciano et al., 2017), exert positive effect on internal temperature of brood area (Gil‐Lebrero et al., 2020) and brood viability (Cebotari et al., 2019), increase glycogen levels (Bordier et al., 2017), increase the resistance of workers (i.e., daughter of heat‐stressed queens; Al‐Ghzawi et al., 2022), reduce reproduction of some pests (e.g., A. tumida ; Noor‐ul‐Ane & Jung, 2021), affect the plant‐pollinator networks (e.g., increase density, visitation rates, interactive role; Thomson, 2016; Hung et al., 2018; Cruz et al., 2022; Jaboor et al., 2022; Alzate‐Marin et al., 2021), and can increase the critical maximum temperature (Aldea‐Sánchez et al., 2021). Instead, some studies that evaluated the decrease in temperatures suggest an increase in the presence of beneficial bacteria such as Snodgrassella alvi (Castelli et al., 2022), as well as increased levels of protein, glycogen, glycerol, vitellogenin, gene expression, thus increasing the cold tolerance of honey bees (Qin et al., 2019).…”

“…Regarding light intensity, solar radiation, CO 2 , atmospheric pressure, and photoperiod those were scarcely represented. In general, these variables were independently analyzed under both experimental (e.g., Butolo et al., 2021; Medina et al., 2018) and empirical approaches (e.g., Gordo & Sanz, 2006; Jaboor et al., 2022), including different combinations of environmental factors (e.g., Morais et al., 2022; Norrström et al., 2021; Rowland et al., 2021). Likewise was the case for their effects, where studies usually analyze the individual effect on selected response variables (e.g., gene expression, visitation rate, appearance date, and survival) and in some cases are considered the interactive effect only between environmental variables (e.g., temperature + precipitation, temperature + photoperiod; e.g., Becsi et al., 2021; Villagomez et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2022; Norrström et al., 2021; Maluf et al., 2022; Anderson & Maes, 2022) or with other stressors such as pesticides and diseases (e.g., Aldea‐Sánchez et al., 2021; Gonzalez et al., 2022); those studies provide an important insight as the climate impacts can be also exacerbated in different ways by their interaction with other stressors.…”

Flight activity, associative learning, and memory in Asian honey bee Apis cerana

“…When the temperature exceeds 35°C, the activity of the bees tends to decrease. Conversely, at lower temperatures, bees may have difficulty navigating and estimating distances during pollination [20]. The high light intensity could disrupt the foraging behavior direction in bees [21].…”

Species richness patterns in Fijian bees are explained by constraints in physiological traits

“…Behavioural thermoregulation, such as hiding in deep ground nests during unfavourable climatic conditions, might provide some respite from extreme temperatures (da Silva et al 2021). However, reduced foraging activity outside the nest on high temperature days could also have implications on brood provisioning and pollination (Jaboor et al 2022). Evolutionary change is the only viable long-term solution to survival with climate change when range shifts are not possible, especially as plastic responses are often small (Gunderson and Stillman 2015).…”