Does snowmelt timing affect bumble bee colony abundance?

Abstract

Average temperatures are increasing globally and causing shifts in the timing of weather events such as spring snowmelt, which may have profound consequences on the phenology of many organisms. Working at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab in central Colorado, we examined the relationship between spring snowmelt timing and patterns of bumble bee abundance throughout the foraging season. To do this, we conducted net sampling at each site every two weeks throughout the summer for 7 consecutive years (2009-2015) and recorded each bumble bee caught on a flower. We looked at the effects of year, date, snowmelt timing, annual precipitation, and temperature on bumble bee abundance using generalized linear mixed models in R. We found that the abundance of Bombus bifarius was significantly affected by the date of sampling, the date of first snowmelt, and temperature, while the abundance of Bombus appositus and Bombus flavifrons were significantly affected by date and precipitation. We conclude that earlier snowmelt dates may positively affect bumble bee populations by extending foraging seasons and thus allowing greater colony buildup.

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