Senior author Dr Richard Gill, from the Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) at Imperial, said: “With hotter and wetter conditions predicted to place bumblebees under higher stress, the fact these conditions will become more frequent under climate change means bumblebees may be in for a rough time over the 21 st century.” DNA from single legsĪs well as measuring the wing shapes of bees, in a second parallel study the team successfully sequenced the genomes of over a hundred bumblebee museum specimens dating back more than 130 years. We hope to be able to forecast where and when bumblebees will be most at risk and target effective conservation action.” Credit: Ashleigh WhiffinĪuthor Dr Andres Arce, now at the University of Suffolk, stated: “Our goal is to better understand responses to specific environmental factors and learn from the past to predict the future. The study is published today in the Journal of Animal Ecology.Īuthor Aoife Cantwell-Jones, from the Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) at Imperial, said: “By using a proxy of stress visible on the bee’s external anatomy and caused by stress during development just days or weeks before, we can look to more accurately track factors placing populations under pressure through historic space and time.” Dr Andres Arce working with specimens at the National Museums Scotland. Learning from the past to predict the futureīy taking the climate conditions during the year of collection – namely annual mean temperature and annual rainfall – the team found that in hotter and wetter years bees showed higher wing asymmetry. Further analysis showed that each bee species displayed a consistently higher proxy of stress in the latter half of the century.
Studying four UK bumblebee species, the group found evidence for stress getting higher as the century progressed from its lowest point around 1925. High asymmetry (very differently shaped right and left wings) indicates the bees experienced stress during development – an external factor that affected their normal growth. Using digital images, the group first investigated the asymmetry in bumblebee wings as an indicator of stress. The research, by scientists from Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum, London, analysed the morphology (body shapes) of bee specimens dating back to 1900. Bumblebees may be in for a rough time over the 21st century. Bumblebees and other insects are important natural pollinators of crops and of wildflowers, but many groups have faced population declines in recent years. Thank you for listening to the weather report from LocalConditions.An analysis of bumblebee wings from a network of UK museums shows signs of stress linked to increasingly hotter and wetter conditions.Īs well as revealing what is linked to stress in bees in the past, the study can help predict when and where bees will face most stress and potential decline in the future. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon. Labor Day has an expected forecast of A chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm.
Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon. The forecast for Today is A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Sunrise is at 6:24 AM and Sunset is at 7:24 PM. Wind direction is North at 3 miles per hour, gusting at 2 mph. The humidity is 83.01 percent with a dew point of 64.4 degrees fahrenheit that is rising since the last report. The barometric pressure is 30.14 - measured by inch of mercury units - and is steady since its last observation. It is 70 degrees fahrenheit, or 22 degrees celsius and feels like 69 degrees fahrenheit. The current weather report for Township Of Washington NJ, as of 4:15 AM EDT, has a sky condition of Fair with the visibility of 10.00 miles.