This post includes referencing information and notes taken for a video on YouTube. It is not intended as a reading post. The video is embedded below for your convenience.
Currently Yolngu people in Arnhem land are participating in a project to research native stingless bees after anecdotal evidence suggests a lack of flowers and bees. One theory is that this is a result of climate change.
Recent research by James Cook University researcher, Holly Farnan, suggested that Tetragonula hockingsi bees are more susceptible to heat stress if they experience non-lethal exposure to insecticides when foraging. This has worrying implications for the survival of the species as the climate warms.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306456523002127
An article recently published in the Journal of Thermal Biology studied three species of stingless bees and concluded that larvae and pupae are more resistant to heat stress than foragers. It established thresholds for heat stress resistance for each species and concluded that contemporary heat events in Eastern Australia are already exceeding those thresholds. The research suggests that heat stress becomes lethal for Australian stingless bees between 40 and 45 degrees Celsius. Again this has worrying implications for the survival of the species as the climate warms.
(Da Silva, Gloag, & Kellerman, 2023)
Da Silva, C., Gloag, R., & Kellerman, V. (2023, December). Effects of Climate Change on Bees and Pollination. Cross-Pollinator, 3-5.
An interesting Australian study examined Exoneura species also known as reed bees and Lassioglossum species and concluded that Australian bees generally have a large tolerance for temperature and therefore are not at immediate risk from climate change. However, this is qualified with an acknowledgement that the risk is increased due to climate impacts on floral resources and that this increase makes the risk moderate at this time.
Severe to extreme heatwave conditions developed across much of northern Australia in the second half of the month, with daytime temperatures generally 5 to 10 degrees above average, and night-time temperatures also above average.
Daytime temperatures peaked 10 to 15 °C above average through inland South Australia, New South Wales, southern Northern Territory and south-western Queensland, with maximum temperatures exceeding 40.0 °C in these areas.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/season/aus/summary.shtml
- The national mean temperature was 1.69 °C above the 1961–1990 average, the fifth-warmest spring on record (since 1910).
- The national mean maximum temperature was 2.29 °C above average and the national mean minimum temperature was 1.09 °C above average, the third- and ninth-warmest on record respectively.
Jane Grows Garden Rooms 