Low to Mid Elevational Resurvey of Bumble bee Distributions in Response to Climate Change
Abstract
In 1974, Graham Pyke conducted a study that examined Bombus spp. distributions along five transects around the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory area in Crested Butte, CO. The study was repeated in 2007 and within the intervening 33-year period, it showed that certain species of bumble bees had shifted higher in elevation due to climate change. The study has been repeated every five to seven years since 2007 with the most recent re-survey carried out in 2014. These studies are intended to use bumble bees as an ideal indicator of climate change due to their rapid life cycle. In 2019, I repeated the study using only low to mid-elevation sites to determine whether there was an increase or decrease in relative abundance compared to 2014. Data was collected by capturing bumble bees, identifying them in the field, and also taking photos of bumble bees in a clear cylindrical PVC tube to confirm field identifications. I also recorded the flower species the bumble bees were collected off of. Floral surveys were also conducted to assess whether floral distributions affected bumble bee distributions. We found a general increase in low-elevation species and a general decrease in high-elevation species over the elevation range that I studied, with the exception of one species. Comparison of floral phenology over a short period of time suggested that some plants were present in 2014 that were not present in 2019, which may be attributed to climate change or successional changes in the sites over time. The findings indicated that bumble bee species composition at each site has slightly shifted, but a larger sampling over the entire elevation range will help indicate whether these slight shifts are due to climate change or other unmeasured factors.
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References (15)
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