Submission Type
Poster
Abstract
Bees are both ecologically and economically important pollinators for maintaining agricultural production and the health of many diverse ecosystems. As our world continues to change, bee diversity and population numbers are declining due to increasing temperatures. Functional traits such as body size and coloration can mediate the effects of such harsh thermal conditions on insect performance. Specifically, bee body size can significantly impact thermal parameters, with larger bees gaining and losing heat more slowly than smaller bees due to higher surface area to volume ratios. To obtain a better understanding of these relationships, we studied the variation in body temperature of bees in relation to body size and coloration, with a focus on metallic coloration. We measured body temperatures of live specimens in the field and took photographs of these specimens that we subsequently used to measure body sizes using ImageJ software. Preliminary analysis shows that there was an interactive effect between body size and metallic coloration on field body temperature, with metallic bees having lower body temperatures than non-metallic bees. However, the interaction between body size and metallic coloration might be because all of the metallic bees on which we measured body temperature were small (1-2 mm.) More analysis is needed to fully understand the effect of functional trait variation on bee body temperature and how this affects bee physiology.
Included in
Biodiversity Commons, Entomology Commons, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Other Physiology Commons
Effect of Functional Trait Variation on Bee Body Temperature
Bees are both ecologically and economically important pollinators for maintaining agricultural production and the health of many diverse ecosystems. As our world continues to change, bee diversity and population numbers are declining due to increasing temperatures. Functional traits such as body size and coloration can mediate the effects of such harsh thermal conditions on insect performance. Specifically, bee body size can significantly impact thermal parameters, with larger bees gaining and losing heat more slowly than smaller bees due to higher surface area to volume ratios. To obtain a better understanding of these relationships, we studied the variation in body temperature of bees in relation to body size and coloration, with a focus on metallic coloration. We measured body temperatures of live specimens in the field and took photographs of these specimens that we subsequently used to measure body sizes using ImageJ software. Preliminary analysis shows that there was an interactive effect between body size and metallic coloration on field body temperature, with metallic bees having lower body temperatures than non-metallic bees. However, the interaction between body size and metallic coloration might be because all of the metallic bees on which we measured body temperature were small (1-2 mm.) More analysis is needed to fully understand the effect of functional trait variation on bee body temperature and how this affects bee physiology.
Comments
Toby Shaya, Bowling Green State University
Dr. Kevin McCluney, Bowling Green State University