<
https://theconversation.com/most-bees-are-solitary-and-dont-live-in-hives-climate-change-risks-them-starving-282386>
"When we think of bees, we often think of flowers. The more flowers the better,
right? Well, not exactly. Like us, bees need to consume specific nutrients in
suitable amounts and combinations.
So, the mere presence of flowers doesn’t necessarily mean the bees are getting
nutritionally adequate food.
This matters because climate change is altering both the quantity and
nutritional composition of pollen and nectar. At the same time, what nutrition
the bees need is likely shifting, too. This creates rapidly moving goalposts –
it’s increasingly difficult for bees to find and consume the right nutrients
they need to reproduce, develop and survive.
In our new paper published in
Current Opinion in Insect Science, we argue
these changes are unlikely to affect all bees equally. Currently, most of what
we know about bee nutrition comes from highly social species such as honeybees
or bumblebees.
Yet most bees, including many native Australian species, are solitary or
communal (group living but with no queens and workers). They might experience
the nutritional landscape and nutritional stress in very different ways.
Understanding these differences is crucial for predicting which bees are most
vulnerable under climate change."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
