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ViewAttendees 4

Member Symposium

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Thermal Ecology of Pollinators

Bumble bees show limited capacity for acclimation of thermal tolerance

Sunday, November 5, 2023
10:10 AM – 10:25 AM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Chesapeake 4-5
In-Person
Bumble bee (genus Bombus) declines in many parts of the world are clearly linked to changing climates. As with many other organisms, current and future distributions are determined, in part, by differences in thermal tolerance among species and populations. But thermal tolerance is often plastic: recent temperature exposures can lead to shifts in thermal tolerance that better protect animals from temperature extremes. This acclimation capacity can strongly influence predicted effects of changing temperatures, but, to our knowledge, no studies have assessed acclimation in bumble bee thermal tolerance limits. We measured thermal tolerance (Ctmin, Ctmax) of wild-caught and lab-reared bumble bee workers (Bombus vosnesenskii) from low and high elevation populations after 12-72 hours of acclimation at cool and warm temperatures. We found little evidence of acclimation of thermal tolerance, which was consistent among colonies within populations but varied among populations for both wild-caught and lab reared bees. These results reveal little capacity for acclimation of thermal tolerance in bumble bees. Some evidence suggests that high metabolic turnover in these heterothermic insects may facilitate rapid but short-lived physiological responses to temperature extremes, rather than longer term acclimatization. Given the lack of plasticity in thermal tolerance within individuals, variation among populations and species in thermal tolerance may be an important determinant of response to ongoing climate change.