Can Bees Survive at Sundance?

The rising temperatures of the Salt Lake Valley will have more than people escaping to higher elevations. Native pollinators may be on the move too, but is it safe for them at higher elevation?

In the past several years, native bees have been shifting their habitats toward higher elevations in search of cooler temperatures. In that same time frame, these bees have been getting smaller and their abundance declining. What is causing these changes, and can these bees survive climate change? A recent study of the native Mason Bee (Osmia lignaria) in Sundance Canyon led by University of Madison Wisconsin scientist Shawn Stephan, PhD, provides some answers.

When native bees lay eggs, they store pollen next to them, so their babies have the food needed to grow from the larvae stage to a healthy adult. But at higher elevation the lower oxygen levels stress the larvae, larvae stop eating and shift to transforming into adult bees before reaching that healthy size. In this study, 6% more bee larvae died with just a 1,900 ft increase in elevation and 67% more bee larvae died with an elevation gain of 3,900 ft. Those that survived were nearly half the size of bees at lower elevations (4,300 ft). Other studies have found similar responses in butterfly species moving up in elevation to escape the heat. Whether these pollinators can evolve fast enough to outfly climate change is not known.

Read more about the findings of Dr. Stephan’s study here.