Thermal acclimation of cognitive and physiological performance in the honey bee, Apis mellifera

Understanding how climate change will affect ectotherm behavior in the face of rising global temperatures is a pressing challenge, especially in the context of important pollinators such as honeybees. In ectotherms, metabolic rate increases exponentially with temperature, which can have acute impacts on both physiology and behavior. However, it is unclear how exposure to chronic temperature increases will affect metabolically expensive tissues such as the brain. Despite the apparent connections between temperature, metabolism, and cognitive function, very few studies have explicitly linked these ideas together in the context of behavior. Here, we aim to address this gap by testing the response of a set of cognitive and physiological performance parameters to extreme temperature in the honeybee, Apis mellifera. Specifically, we evaluate associative learning performance, activity level, and metabolic rate, each of which plays an important role in foraging behavior. Using a framework based on the Q10 thermal sensitivity coefficient, we calculate how the sensitivity of these parameters change in response to acclimation at 25℃ versus 35℃. We compare these responses across two genetic lines of bees with low or high metabolic rate to determine whether individual differences in metabolic rate correspond to varying capacities for thermal acclimation.