SSRP Abstract

Board 17: Effects of Desiccation, Starvation, and Temperature Acclimation on Bees’ Heat Tolerance

Student Scientist: Wesley Rancher ’23
Research Mentor: Victor H. Gonzales (Department of Biology, University of Kansas)

Given consideration to possible effects of climate change such as, increasingly hotter temperatures and more arid and/ or humid environments we tested the effects of both of these environmental stressors on bees in Lesvos, Greece. We used desiccant, which depletes water content from the organism and made two way chambers where we could have the bees exposed to the desiccant. We determined a sublethal exposure time to the desiccant and tested mild, moderate, and high exposures then tested the bees’ tolerance to heat using an Elara or what is essentially an electronic controller of the temperature. We also paired the effects of starvation with desiccation and heat tolerance. We saw a significant decrease in the temperature that bees could withstand before collapse after severe exposure to desiccation.

Drastic changes in rainfall patterns are expected under future climate change scenarios. However, desiccation tolerance (the ability of an organism to reduce water loss) remains relatively poorly explored in most species. Desiccation tolerance appears to be critical in shaping species resilience to climate change, and insects are particularly vulnerable to desiccation considering their high surface area to volume ratio, low fat storage, and relatively high metabolic rate. In this on-going research, we investigate how exposure to desiccation stress influences bees’ heat tolerance. Bees are the most important pollinators of both wild and cultivated plants, and thus, this information is highly relevant to predict potential impacts on pollination services. We also assess the influence of sociality (eusocial vs solitary), body size, and nesting type (ground vs stem) on bees’ responses.