New UK research suggests solitary bee populations may be more vulnerable to heatwaves than previously believed, with implications for their reproductive behaviour and survival during increasingly extreme weather events.

The Conversation

A red mason bee seeking pollen. Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH/Shutterstock
There is not yet much research on the effects of heatwaves on bees. What little there is focuses on super extremes of weather that would kill an adult bee.
However, my new research with colleagues shows that UK populations of solitary bees may be much more sensitive than previously thought to the kinds of extreme weather we are now seeing regularly.
To find out what happens to bees during hot weather, my team recreated the thre