Effects of weather and floral density on foraging activity of cavity nesting bees (<i> Osmia </i>spp.)

Abstract

Thermoregulation is an important factor for bee flight which ultimately contributes to an individual’s ability to forage and produce offspring. Rising temperatures could benefit insects by increasing their efficiency in reproduction and provisioning. However, warming could negatively impact floral resources, thereby indirectly affecting foraging and reproductive success in specialist bees negatively. In this study I investigated the effects of weather variation and floral density on individual foraging rate in subalpine populations of the solitary bee species ​Osmia iridis and Osmia coloradensis​ on individual foraging rate. I examined how temperature, percent cloud coverage and floral density affected the foraging rates and provisioning efficiency. Foraging rate did not increase with rising temperatures nor with increased floral densities. However, increased cloud coverage did decrease the foraging rates of bees, as expected. The results suggest that temperature, cloud coverage, and host floral density are not the only factors that affect the foraging rates of solitary bees and understanding the response to warming is critical to understanding the responses to global change in bee populations.

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