Search results
Bumblebees are in crisis. 2024 has been the worst year on record for bumblebees. This year’s wet spring and cool summer have had a massive impact on already struggling bumblebee populations. Donate to our appeal today and join our fight to save bumblebees. Donate today.
- Overview
- Cool specialists
- Other drivers of decline
- How to help
Loss of the vital pollinators, due in part to temperature extremes and fluctuations, could have dire consequences for ecosystems and agriculture.
Bumblebees, among the most important pollinators, are in trouble. Fuzzy and buzzy, they excel at spreading pollen and fertilizing many types of wild flora, as well as crucial agricultural crops like tomatoes, blueberries, and squash.
But their numbers are dropping. New research using a massive dataset found that the insects are far less common than they used to be; in North America, you are nearly 50 percent less likely to see a bumblebee in any given area than you were prior to 1974.
Moreover, several once-common species have disappeared from many areas they were once found, becoming locally extinct in those places. For example, the rusty patched bumblebee, which used to flourish in Ontario, is no longer found in all of Canada—in the U.S., it’s endangered.
In a new paper published this week in the journal Science, researchers used a complex modeling process to suggest that their decline is driven in large part by climate change.
Specifically, the scientists found that in areas that have become hotter in the last generation, or have experienced more extreme temperature swings, bumblebees are less abundant. In Europe, they are 17 percent less plentiful than they were in the early 20th century. The scientists examined the abundance of 66 species across the two continents.
It has long been known that bumblebees are more suited to cold weather, with their fuzzy bodies and ability to generate heat while flying, which often allows them to be the first bees out in the spring. Exactly how vulnerable they are to heat waves and weather fluctuations still isn’t clear for most species, though this study suggests there’s a limit to their adaptability.
And it is indeed warming up. The last five years were the hottest ever recorded in the 139 years that the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has tracked global heat.
There are several mechanisms at play, says study co-author Jeremy Kerr. The insects can simply overheat, as lab experiments have shown, but there may also be indirect impacts on vegetation and flowers that could lead to the bees starving, he adds.
Bumblebees only live one year at most, and queens often spend the winter in leaf litter or in the ground. Here, they are still vulnerable to shifts in temperature, and things like unusually early ice melts and re-freezes, Kerr says.
The decline is dangerous for the environment since bumblebees’ pollination services are necessary for many flowering plants to reproduce, says Matthew Austin, a Ph.D. student and researcher at the University of Missouri in St. Louis who wasn't involved in the paper.
“As these plants are then used by myriad other organisms, the decline of bumblebees can have cascading ecological [effects] that may collectively cause biodiversity loss.”
Climate change is not the only factor behind the insects’ decline. They are also threatened by pesticides like neonicotinoids—which are extremely toxic to all bees—destruction of habitat by development and conversion of wildlands into agriculture, the spread of pathogens, and the release of non-native bees for commercial pollination.
“This study will be impactful in drawing scientists’ attention more to the role climate may play in the declines of these bees,” say Heather Hines, a researcher at Penn State University who wasn’t involved in the research. “That said, their data shows that while climate can explain declines to a large degree, it is not the only factor involved in explaining the overall decline in species richness observed over time.”
The authors agree, and note that the paper shows habitat loss was also a driver of local extinction. Kerr stresses that “we’re not arguing against the role of habitat loss and pesticide misuse as [drivers] of decline... we think the case for those things is strong, but just different.”
6:54
Saving Bumblebees Became This Photographer's Mission
One natural history photographer is on a multi-year quest to tell the stories of native bees, such as the endangered rusty patched bumblebee.
There is good news, however, Soroye adds.
Since the paper suggests that extreme temperatures can impact the bumblebees, creating more parks or planting trees and shrubs in urban environments—which are often cooler than surrounding built spaces—could give them places to shelter from the heat, he says.
There are also other things people can do to help the bees. (Read how you can support bumblebees in your own backyard.)
Among the easiest are bee-friendly yard practices like planting native flowers that bumblebees can feed on, and avoiding the use of pesticides like neonicotinoids. Creating flower beds that are continuously in bloom can also help, Austin says, as well as waiting until spring to remove leaf litter, a prime denning spot for the insects.
- 7 min
- Douglas Main
May 24, 2022 · Bees lose this vital resource when habitats are lost entirely because they're either built on or changed into other environments or degraded through things like pesticide use.' The current study investigated bumblebees, using community science data collected over a decade to assess how different species responded in a range of environments. The ...
May 3, 2024 · A stock photo shows a bumblebee in a flower. A new study has found a new factor in the species decline across the world. Sazonoff/Getty. Kevan and colleagues decided to take a closer look at ...
- 3 min
- Robyn White
Apr 29, 2019 · Rusty patched bumble bee: 100 percent. American bumble bee: 98 percent. Yellow banded bumble bee: 71 percent. Yellow bumble bee: 65 percent. Researchers did find some success stories: The common eastern bumble bee and the brown belted bumble bee, increased by 31 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
Jun 28, 2024 · Bumblebees are missing from gardens after record rainfall in spring, experts have warned. The UK had the wettest spring on record, with rainfall on most days in April and May, delaying queen bees ...
People also ask
Are bumble bees in trouble?
Are bumblebee populations in trouble?
Are bumblebees dying?
Are bumblebees harming the environment?
Are bumblebees missing from gardens after record rainfall in spring?
Why are bumblebees teeming down this June?
May 20, 2021 · 5. Bumble bees are in trouble. Several bumble bee species are rapidly declining and the status of others is unknown. The western bumble bee, the yellow banded bumble bee and the Franklin’s bumble bee have all vanished from large portions of their range and the rusty-patched bumble bee was recently listed as officially endangered.
