| Global warming and is expected to accelerate worldwide bee declines. This is very problematic, because bee pollination is a fundamental requirement for food security, determining both harvest yield and nutritional value. This ecosystem service is now under threat by climate change. For example, studies in North America shows that bee site occupancy has plummeted to just 60% of historic ranges with climate change effects being the main culprit. Yet, the mechanisms explaining why bees are so sensitive to global warming are understudied. Corresponding data for Sweden is lacking; an unfortunate insight since one-third of Sweden’s wild bee species already appear on the national red list. Research is now needed to understand and promote the relationship between bees and pollination across landscape types, to forecast changes in bee diversity and performance in a warming world.
In this 2-year project, we address which bees will beat the heat and how they do it, to infer biodiversity- and ecosystem service consequences of climate change. We will investigate two main research questions:
1. How resistant is the current bee pollinator community to heat and drought? We will combine a biodiversity survey across natural and agricultural landscapes to determine the size and composition of the extant pollinator community. We will couple our biodiversity metrics to empirical measurement of the resistance to climate change – indexed as heating and desiccation safety margins – which we will use to parameterise a model forecasting bee diversity and community function under future climate scenarios.
2. Do heatwaves and droughts exert synergistic effects on bee performance and fitness? We will use a full-factorial experiment in agricultural landscapes to determine how heat and droughts interact to impact bee health, performance and colony production under extreme weather events, and address whether microclimate control mechanisms should be recommended as intervention strategies promoting bee health under climate change.
Our research will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the complex relationships between pollinator diversity, crops, and climate change, ultimately supporting development of sustainable agricultural practices that benefit both pollinator conservation and farmers in southern Sweden. By the conclusion of this project in 2027, we envision a unified pollinator strategy that generates added value for agriculture and rural development across the entire region.
#Additional information#
Here, we are applying for funds to cover the salary of a postdoctoral researcher for 12 months including LKP, 33% of the research costs, and 35% overhead. The PI will allocate funds from his current Formas grant for an additional 12 months of postdoc salary and the outstanding research costs, making this into an attractive 24-month post for a strong postdoctoral candidate. The hosting department will cover the discrepancy of overhead costs as per standard procedure at the host. I am also applying for a DO-project in the 2024 call, with separate research questions and methodology. The relationship between projects is disclosed in detail under ‘Övrig information’.
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