Characterization of thermal tolerance in sub-alpine bumblebee species

Abstract

Temperature is one of the limiting factors of life, and it influences an organism’s growth, sexual reproduction, sexual determination, distribution, and metabolism. the interaction between temperature and organisms therefore an essential component of their ecology. Temperature impacts organisms in different ways, and some organisms, such as bumblebees, may be especially sensitive to temperature shifts. With the likelihood of climate change causing a gradually warmer world, it is vital to understand how bumblebees will respond. Phenology plays a large role in how an animal interacts with temperature, and I seek to evaluate if and how emergence timing influences thermal tolerance in sub-alpine bumblebee species. Critical thermal minimum (CTmin) and critical thermal maximum (CTmax) measurements were taken for five common species of sub-alpine bumblebees in the field over the course of the summer using laboratory-verified devices. We found that there was considerable difference between species type and thermal tolerance., and that earlier emerging species may have less flexibility in their thermal tolerance ranges than later emerging species. Our preliminary results suggest that phenologically earlier species may be more vulnerable to an increasing intensity and frequency of extreme temperature events under climate change.

Local Knowledge Graph (5 entities)

Related Works

Items connected by shared entities, co-authorship, citations, or semantic similarity.

References (13)

13 references to works outside the Knowledge Hub