Beat the heat: thermal respites and access to food associated with increased bumble bee heat tolerance.

ABSTRACT: Climate change poses a threat to organisms across the world, with cold-adapted species such as bumble bees (Bombus spp.) at particularly high risk. Understanding how organisms respond to extreme heat events associated with climate change as well as the factors that increase resilience or prime organisms for future stress can inform conservation actions. We investigated the effects of heat stress within different contexts (duration, periodicity, with and without access to food, and in the laboratory versus field) on bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) survival and heat tolerance. We found that both prolonged (5 h) heat stress and nutrition limitation were negatively correlated with worker bee survival and thermal tolerance. However, the effects of these acute stressors were not long lasting (no d

SUBMITTER: Quinlan GM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10508702 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature