A new study by Webster University Biology Associate Professor Nicole Miller-Struttmann, University of Missouri at Columbia Professor Emerita Candace Galen and University of Missouri Ph.D. student Zack Miller has identified a critical piece of the puzzle for a question that has troubled scientists tracking biodiversity as the climate warms– why are once abundant species declining?
Their study, compiling many years of observation from three peaks in the Rocky Mountains, found that at high elevations above timberline – referred to as "alpine" regions - bumble bees are losing ground in a process that reflects their low tolerance to warming temperatures. As the alpine climate warms, colonizing bumble bees from lower elevations thrive, potentially displacing alpine resident species. If the trend continues, populations of the alpine bumble bees could become extinct, and soon.
"We predict the local extinction of species in areas where the alpine bees can‘t migrate further upslope, where the weather is cooler and the growing season still remains short," Miller-Struttmann said. "They are not responding to the temperature changes fast enough because they are stuck in an evolutionary trap."
Read more at: Webster University
Alpine Bees. (Photo Credit: Webster University)