Bumblebees are challenged by climate change, British researchers said Thursday, August 18, who have studied the physical evolution of these pollinating insects over more than a century.
By studying bumblebees kept in museums and institutions in the United Kingdom, researchers from Imperial College London have found that insects develop asymmetries in their wings when the weather puts them in difficulty.
Their study, which focused on bumblebees of four species preserved since 1900, shows that the asymmetry of their wings -synonymous with stress during development- has increased during the 20th century.
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The researchers thus noticed that the bumblebees developed more frequent and more marked asymmetries in years when the climatic conditions had been particularly hot and humid.
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Our goal is to better understand the responses (of bumblebees) to specific environmental factors, to learn from the past in order to predict the future
," explained Andres Arce, co-author of the study.
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We hope to be able to predict where and when bumblebees will be most at risk to target effective measures
,” he added.
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Warmer and wetter conditions are predicted to put bumblebees under pressure, and the fact that these conditions are becoming more frequent with climate change means that bumblebees are likely to face tough times in the 21st century
,” warned Richard. Gill, co-author of the study at Imperial College.
In a second study also published on Thursday, researchers at the Natural History Museum in London succeeded in sequencing the genomes (the genetic information) of more than a hundred bumblebees, sometimes preserved for more than 130 years, using for the first time on insects methods usually reserved for mammoths and prehistoric men.
They will now be able to study how these genomes have evolved over time and see whether species have adapted – or not – to environmental changes.
Insects are the main pollinators in the world: 75% of the 115 main crops depend on animal pollination, including cocoa, coffee, almonds or cherries, according to the UN.
In an iconic report published in 2019,
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