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<DIV>Thanks to Chip Taylor for this.</DIV>
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From: chip@ku.edu<BR>To: Ladadams@aol.com<BR>Sent: 3/1/2013 7:38:57 A.M.
Pacific Standard Time<BR>Subj: Fwd: CATCH THE BUZZ - Climate Change and
Changing Pollinators<BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000
size=2 face=Arial>
<DIV>Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 08:46:32 -0600<BR>To: <chip@ku.edu><BR>From:
Kim Flottum <Kim@BeeCulture.com><BR>Subject: CATCH THE BUZZ - Climate
Change and Changing Pollinators<BR>X-Ezezine: (1636.25563.4009)<BR></DIV>
<DIV>This ezine is also available online at <A
title=http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2013.03.01.08.46.archive.html
href="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</A><BR></DIV>
<DIV>CATCH THE BUZZ <BR></DIV>
<DIV>Climate Change, Changing Landscape Affect Pollinators and
Plants<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>Occasionally stung, but considering herself lucky to have <A
title=http:// href="">access</A> 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."<BR></DIV>
<DIV>Burkle conducted her bee study in the forests of southern Illinois while
she was a postdoctoral researcher at Washington <A title=http://
href="">University in</A> 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.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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 <A title=http://
href="">residential</A> uses. Winter and spring temperatures have risen
an average of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>"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."<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>"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."<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>"He loved it," Burkle said. "That was his full-time passion."<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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 <A
title=http:// href="">the microscopes</A> Burkle set up in their
Carlinville apartment.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>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."<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>Burkle conducted her research with a $75,000 RAPID grant from the
National Science Foundation.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>The suite of species that live in Montana and Illinois are entirely
different, but some of the same issues apply, Burkle said.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>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."<BR></DIV>
<DIV>She added that Burkle's expertise on identifying bees and analyzing
plant-pollinator networks were crucial to the success of the bee
project.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>"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.<BR></DIV>
<HR>
<DIV><BR> </DIV>
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<DIV><BR></DIV><X-SIGSEP><PRE>--
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<DIV>Chip Taylor<BR>chip@ku.edu<BR>Monarch
Watch<BR>http://www.MonarchWatch.org/<BR>Dplex-L: send message "info
Dplex-L" to Listproc@ku.edu<BR>1-888-TAGGING -or- 1-785-864-4441<BR>University
of Kansas<BR>1200 Sunnyside Avenue<BR>Lawrence, KS 66045-7534<BR>Create,
Conserve, and Protect Monarch
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