Warming summer temperatures are rapidly restructuring North American bumble bee communities

Abstract

A rapidly warming climate is driving changes in biodiversity worldwide, and its impact on insect communities is critical given their outsized role in ecosystem function and services. We use a long-term dataset of North American bumble bee species occurrences to determine whether the community temperature index (CTI), a measure of the balance of warm- and cool-adapted species in a community, has increased given warming temperatures. CTI has increased by an average of 0.99°C in strong association with warming maximum summer temperatures over the last 30 years with the areas exhibiting the largest increases including mid- to high latitudes as well as low and high elevations-areas relatively shielded from other intensive global changes. CTI shifts have been driven by the decline of cold-adapted species and increases in warm-adapted species within bumble bee communities. Our results show the pervasive impacts and ecological implications warming temperatures pose to insects.

Keywords: bumble bee; climate change; community composition; community temperature index; ecoinformatics.