[Pollinator] Fwd: CATCH THE BUZZ - Climate Change and Changing Pollinators

Fri Mar 1 10:42:25 PST 2013

Thanks to Chip Taylor for this.

____________________________________
 From: chip at ku.edu
To: Ladadams at aol.com
Sent: 3/1/2013 7:38:57 A.M.  Pacific Standard Time
Subj: Fwd: CATCH THE BUZZ - Climate Change and  Changing Pollinators

Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 08:46:32 -0600
To: <chip at ku.edu>
From:  Kim Flottum <Kim at BeeCulture.com>
Subject: CATCH THE BUZZ - Climate  Change and Changing Pollinators
X-Ezezine: (1636.25563.4009)

This ezine is also available online at 
_http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2013.03.01.08.46.archive.html_ 
(http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2013.03.01.08.46.archive.html) 

CATCH THE BUZZ 

Climate Change, Changing Landscape Affect Pollinators and  Plants

BOZEMAN, Mont. - Laura Burkle and her colleagues captured 2,778 bees  while 
retracing the muddy steps of a scientist who studied the interactions  
between bees and flowering plants more than a century ago.

Occasionally stung, but considering herself lucky to have _access_ ()  to 
the rich historic records that guided  her field work, the Montana State 
University ecologist and her collaborators  have now published their results in 
"Science."

Burkle conducted her bee study in the forests of southern Illinois while  
she was a postdoctoral researcher at Washington _University in_ ()  St. 
Louis, Mo. Now at MSU for the past two  years and planning a major ecological 
study between Yellowstone National Park  and Glacier National Park, Burkle and 
her co-authors compared the bees and  flowering plants that existed in 2009 
and 2010 with those that existed in the  late 1800s and early 1900s around 
Carlinville, Ill.

The researchers discovered that the area has lost many species of bees  and 
flowering plants over the 120 years since professor Charles Robertson  
first surveyed the area, Burkle said. Also lost were many interactions between  
the bees and flowers.

Despite the loss, however, the bees and plants have been surprisingly  
resilient in the face of warmer temperatures and changing land use, Burkle  
said. The forests that once grew 10 miles outside of Carlinville are fragments  
of what they were when Robertson drove his horse and buggy to collect  
specimens. Fields of corn have replaced acres of trees and prairie. Natural  
areas have been converted to agricultural, commercial or _residential_ ()  uses. 
Winter and spring temperatures have risen  an average of 3.6 degrees 
Fahrenheit.

"The good news is that these systems and the way they are structured make  
them really resilient to change," Burkle said. "But there's been so much  
change that resiliency has been compromised."

Co-author Tiffany Knight, Burkle's faculty adviser for the study, said,  
"Plants are an important resource for humans, providing food, fiber and the  
backbone for all other ecosystem services. Most plants rely on animal  
pollinators for their reproduction. There is concern that human changes to the  
environment are disrupting plant-pollinator interactions, but our study is the 
 first that has been able to look at this problem using historical  data.

"One of our significant findings is that climate change has resulted in  
mismatches between plants and their historic pollinators, such that insects  
are active during times when plants are not in bloom," Knight said. "This is  
likely because plants and insects respond to different environment cues, 
and  thus, we expect that mismatches between plants and their historic 
pollinators  due to climate change is important across the globe."

The scientist who inspired the recent study was a Harvard professor  before 
moving to Illinois to retire. When he discovered the woods around  
Carlinville, however, he resumed his academic life as a professor at the local  
Blackburn College. He collected most of his data from 1887 to 1897, but  
continued into 1917.

"He loved it," Burkle said. "That was his full-time passion."

Burkle learned about Robertson while looking for a research project to  
pursue as a postdoctoral researcher. Since Carlinville and St. Louis are just  
1 1Ž2 hours apart, Burkle and Knight decided to follow up Robertson's study  
with their own.

They spent the springs of 2009 and 2010 doing fieldwork around  
Carlinville. Generally working in the woods between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. when  bees are 
most likely to fly, the researchers slogged through the forests  looking for 
the first flowering plants of the season. Then they captured the  bees that 
pollinated those flowers and identified them under _the microscopes_ ()  
Burkle set up in their  Carlinville apartment.

In 477 hours over two years, the researchers collected 3,620 "floral  
visitors," Burkle said. Of those, 2,778 were bees and the rest were mostly  flies 
and butterflies. The plant that attracted the largest number of bees --  
923 individuals and 33 species - was "Spring Beauty," a small herbaceous  
plant. Second most popular plant was the "Great Waterleaf."

In addition to their and Robertson's specimens, Burkle and Knight  compared 
their findings to those of co-author John Marlin from the University  of 
Illinois. Marlin, who had gathered data from the Carlinville area in the  
1970s, provided intermediate-year information that was "incredibly helpful,"  
Burkle said.

Burkle conducted her research with a $75,000 RAPID grant from the  National 
Science Foundation.

Burkle's next study will begin this summer and look at disturbances -  such 
as from recent and more historic fires -- to see how plant and pollinator  
communities re-assemble across Montana between Yellowstone and Glacier  
national parks.

The suite of species that live in Montana and Illinois are entirely  
different, but some of the same issues apply, Burkle said.

Knight said, "I would expect that the effects of climate change on  
plant-pollinator interactions are even greater in some locations, such as high  
elevation sites in the Rocky Mountains that have experienced more dramatic  
changes in climate than our Midwestern site."

She added that Burkle's expertise on identifying bees and analyzing  
plant-pollinator networks were crucial to the success of the bee  project.

"I miss working with her at Washington University, but I think she is in  
an excellent location to make new and significant contributions to the field  
of pollination biology," Knight said.

____________________________________

Quality Top Bar Hive by Gold Star Honeybees - good for you,  good for your 
bees, good for the planet. Check us out at _www.goldstarhoneybees.com_ 
(http://www.goldstarhoneybees.com/) .

This message brought to you by _Bee Culture,_ (http://www.beeculture.com/)  
The Magazine Of  American Beekeeping, published by the _A.I. Root  
Company._ (http://www.rootcandles.com/) 

Free practical insights, helpful information, and fun from _Award Winning  
Kelley Bees's_ (https://kelleybees.com/)  monthly newsletter.

Need more bees?  Need better bees?  Feed Global Patties for  better bee 
health, production, wintering and survival.  Hungry hives  will often eat a 
patty a week -- even when pollen is available in the field.  Try Global Patties 
and see the difference. _Learn More._ 
(http://www.globalpatties.com/pages/why.html) 

Small Hive Beetle traps and control products, Worlds largest selection,  
all chemical free.  _www.beetlejail.com_ (http://www.beetlejail.com/) 

Little Bee Books at _www.littlebeebooks.com_ 
(http://www.littlebeebooks.com/) . Take a  look today.

Subscribe to Malcolm Sanford's _Apis  Newsletter_ 
(http://www.apis.shorturl.com/)  right here for a comprehensive listing of beekeeping  events around 
the country and around the globe, check out Bee  Culture's _Global 
Beekeeping  Calendar_ (http://my.calendars.net/bee_culture/) 

You received this email because you subscribed to Catch  The Buzz

_Unsubscribe_ (http://member.ezezine.com/sub.ez?e=1636.25563.4009) 
_Change  settings_ (http://member.ezezine.com/sub.ez?c=1636.25563.4009) 
_Report  abuse_ (https://member.ezezine.com/abuse.ez?e=1636.25563.4009) 

-- 

Chip Taylor
chip at ku.edu
Monarch  Watch
http://www.MonarchWatch.org/
Dplex-L:  send message "info  Dplex-L" to Listproc at ku.edu
1-888-TAGGING -or- 1-785-864-4441
University  of Kansas
1200 Sunnyside Avenue
Lawrence, KS 66045-7534
Create,  Conserve, and Protect Monarch  Habitats

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20130301/4e4d7b42/attachment.html>