New research involving a Kent conservationist has found climate change could be disrupting the relationship between bees and plants.
The study has found that warmer springs cause changes in the life cycle of bees – throwing them out of synchronisation with the plants they pollinate.
Conducted by the University in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the universities of East Anglia and Sussex, the research is the first clear example of the potential for climate change to disrupt critical co-evolutionary relationships between species.
Researchers, including Dr Dave Roberts of the School of Anthropology and Conservation, studied long-term trends in historical records dating back to 1848. Records of a solitary bee (Andrena nigroaenea) from museum specimens were compared with the records of flowering time of the Early Spider Orchid (Ophrys sphegodes) and Met Office climate records.
They found that warmer springs cause orchids to flower earlier. But this does not correspond exactly with the earlier flying of the bees.
The study shows that male bees fly around nine days earlier for each degree increase in average early spring temperature. Meanwhile female bees emerge slightly later than males, near peak orchid pollination time.
Bee specimen data came from the Natural History Museum, London, and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The research was funded by the Swiss Orchid Foundation and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
‘Potential Disruption of Pollination in a Sexually Deceptive Orchid by Climate Change’ is published in the journal Current Biology on November 6, 2014.
For more information contact Dr Dave Roberts.