Bumblebees are most attracted to nectar which is home to microbial communities, and rising temperatures threaten their favorite food
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himAmerican bumblebees are said to be more attracted to nectar which hosts microbial communities, and rising temperatures threaten their favorite food.
Through their pollinating action (different from that operated by bees), i bumblebees they do a great job of conserving biodiversity and proliferating crops: without them it would be difficult to continue to massively produce tomatoes, potatoes, blueberries or peppers. But now their "diet" is gravely upset and threatened by the climate crisis, according to this study that examined the effects of changes in the composition of the nectar on the American bumblebee community: in fact, the increase in temperatures is causing imbalances in the microbial communities present in the nectar that bumblebees eat, with consequences for their health and, consequently, also for ours.
Minor changes in flower nectar can alter the way bumblebees forage for food, impacting their health and the availability of fresh food for us. A small increase in temperatures is enough to accelerate the metabolism of the microbes present in the nectar: a faster metabolism leads them to reproduce more and consume a higher percentage of sugars. This means less sugar for pollinating insects, which find the nectar less sweet and therefore less palatable.
(Read also: Borage changes its appearance due to the climate crisis and bumblebees no longer pollinate it)
To test the "preferences" of the bumblebees, the researchers recreated nectar in the laboratory: in some cases it was sterile nectar, in others microbes were added. Both types of nectar were stored at both high and low temperatures: the lowest temperature (27 ° C) represents the average spring temperature in Riverside in 2017; the highest temperature (32 ° C) corresponds instead to the temperature forecast for the end of the century due to the climate crisis. Confronted with different types of nectar, bumblebees have been shown to be attracted to nectar containing microbes and stored at the lowest temperature, discarding sterile nectar a priori.
The reason for the bumblebees' preferences is unclear: some researchers imagine that bacteria may help bumblebees better digest the sugars contained in nectar; according to another theory, microbes would produce secondary metabolites that would contribute to the well-being of insects. What is clear, however, is that rising temperatures will certainly have negative effects on bumblebees - from shrinking their populations to moving communities to different places, looking for food that can meet their needs.
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Fonte: Environmental Microbiology
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