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The survival of bees is in abeyance. Some species are dying at a record pace, and toxic agricultural chemicals may be to blame. There seems to be a lot of threats for these winged creatures, but climate change may be the final water drop for some species of bees. If the Earth continues to warm up and bees can not find a way to adapt, some people may be at risk of extinction, according to a new study.
A team of scientists discovered that 30 to 70% of Masonic bees are bee environments. This reveals that if temperatures continue to climb, bee populations could begin to die at higher speeds, disrupting ecosystems worldwide, said Paul CaraDonna, an ecologist at Northwestern University
. This is not good news for this bee, "says CaraDonna to Newsweek .
For two years, CaraDonna led a team of researchers in the Santa Catalina Mountains in Arizona to simulate the impact of climate change on bees.They built 90 nesting boxes, sheltering up to 15 bees each.Scientists painted boxes with white reflective paint to simulate a cooler environment, similar to that of the 1950s. A second set of e boxes has been painted with clear coating to act as a control for the experiment.
And a last set of boxes were painted black to simulate the future climate predicted for the years 2040 to 2099. By simply painting the black boxes, they absorbed more radiant energy, heating the box and the bees inside. Bees have lived in altered environments from the beginning of larval development throughout the metamorphosis and up to adulthood. The results were published Thursday in Functional Ecology, The Journal of the British Ecological Society
"Almost no bees die when you have fresh conditions or normal conditions, and a little more die when you warm up a few degrees on average, "said CaraDonna. "I was pretty surprised in those years there were a lot of bees that did not do it."
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The bees that survived the heat became smaller, lost much of their body fat and suffered from disturbances of their hibernation. These results suggest that bees that survived were not healthy and might have trouble finding food or a companion.
"Local bee populations may disappear because of climate change," says CaraDonna, who also works as a researcher. the Chicago Botanical Garden, a conservation science center.
This species of mason bee, Osmia ribifloris also called "blueberry mason bee", is native to the western United States and northern Mexico. This particular bee builds nests inside holes and cracks in dead stumps. As the primary pollinator of desert manzanita flowering shrubs, this bee can have a great impact on its ecosystem.
"Native pollinators play a very important role in the proper functioning of nature," says CaraDonna. "It is estimated that nearly 90 percent of all flowering plants benefit from animal pollination.This results in about 300,000 plant species worldwide."
Although the specific mason bees used in the plant, it is estimated experience does not pollinate agricultural crops, it is possible that rising temperatures also affect other populations of bees. Thanks to a runoff effect, the death of bees could potentially disrupt human life by harming our farming systems, says CaraDonna.
"You are starting to tinker with all these pieces, and there are many consequences that can disrupt the function of natural ecosystems and, possibly, this can also affect humans," he said.
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