Thankfully, as the planet warms, bees have evolved and acquired behavioral and physiological strategies to deal with increased heat. Yet scientists are sounding alarm bells about the fate of these key agricultural pollinators. Recent data indicates that beekeepers in the United States have faced unprecedented challenges, with almost 56% of managed colonies lost—the highest loss recorded since the survey began in 2010. This disconcerting trend has led scientists to increasingly question the sustainability of these bee populations and their indispensable contributions to agriculture.
Isaac Barnes, an urban beekeeper, feeds his beehives sugary-food supplements to keep them healthy during the winter months. Continuing to raise healthy colonies is crucial, he says, as the climate continues to place increased stress on bee populations. The consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly evident, impacting not only beekeepers but the natural ecosystem where bees thrive.
The Adaptive Strategies of Bees
Bees are extraordinary animals — as seen here by their ability to thermoregulate even in punishing heat. Their core body temperatures can be as much as 27 °F (about 15 °C) higher than the ambient air. On extremely hot days, bees use harder wingbeats, with less frequency in order to keep their body temperatures from rising to lethal thresholds.
Jon Harrison is an environmental physiologist at Arizona State University. That study, coauthored by him and others, reveals just how resilient bees are in adapting to extreme heat. Click here to see why he says that bees work hard to outsmart the heat. Just as we might find shade, sweat, or relax our efforts to avoid overheating, bees will do the same to beat the heat. This adaptation, however, comes with significant limitations.
While individual bees might be able to adapt to heat stress, climate change is already increasing worldwide temperatures. This expansion presents a terribly detrimental impact to their natural activities. Kevin McCluney, a biology professor at Bowling Green State University, explains that warmer conditions hinder bees from foraging for nectar and mating, vital activities for colony survival. Second, they’re not going out and getting more nectar. They’re not mating. They’re not fulfilling the missions that bees would have naturally taken care of,” he adds.
The Impact of Climate Change on Pollination
The indirect impacts of climate change reach beyond bee health, affecting all the interconnected ecosystems and species that depend on them. With the global temperature consistently increasing, it has greatly impacted both managed and wild populations of bees. This drastically impacts their contribution to crop pollination, nectar foraging, honey production, and reproductive success.
Environmental advocates caution that this climate change-driven upheaval may have disastrous effects on American agriculture. That fragility is echoed by Margarita López-Uribe, a pollinator health expert at Pennsylvania State University. “It’s an incredibly tenuous system when you really stop and consider it,” she says. And because if something goes wrong you’re stuck with these super high-value crops which will be undersupplied with pollinators.
To complicate their care even more, the timing of blooming plants is changing as global warming alters this natural calendar. While bees would have found food on goldenrod in the fall, these flowers are now blooming later in the year. As Isaac Barnes explains, “Every single plant that blooms is something that the bee can utilize. And every single one of those plants is being impacted by climate change.” This mismatch between when flowers bloom and when bees are active creates a dangerous food scarcity for bees. It would upend farming methods that rely on their irreplaceable pollination.
Funding Challenges for Bee Research
The urgency of needing to understand these populations and protect them is further compounded by funding challenges that research programs are facing. The Trump administration’s proposed budget would make these recommendations a reality, cutting deep to eliminate critical funding. This change would devastate the essential research work of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Bee Lab. This small lab, however, is helping to inventory and monitor wild bee populations across the country and is central to these efforts.
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon has spoken out about the dangers facing America’s pollinators, stating that they are in “grave danger.” He is a passionate proponent of ensuring robust funding for research programs. These concerted actions are key to reducing the harm that climate change has on bee vitality and sustainability.
Harrison expresses worry about potential funding cuts: “I think it’s super important, but it’s not being studied a ton.” He wishes for more research to continue in Europe and China, as it loses funding in the U.S. Those areas are extremely important for understanding their global populations and the growing threats they face.
As researchers call for urgent action to address these challenges, they emphasize the interconnectedness of ecosystems and the importance of sustaining bee populations for agriculture and biodiversity alike. The continuing loss of bee colonies is a tragic but vivid clue to the larger environmental crisis that is happening around us.