“A Bee Investigation” | Year 2 Fieldwork with The Open University

Thank you for watching! Enjoy (I had a lot of fun creating it), and feedback is welcome. References below 🙂

Music:
Otis McDonald – Not for Nothing
City of the Sun – Everything
(all credit goes to original artists)

Abdel-Galel, R., Elbanna, S., Semida, F. (2021). “Foraging rhythm of honeybees Apis mellifera in Ismailia, Egypt”. Catrina: The International Journal of Environmental Sciences, 23(1), pp. 27-33. Available at: https://doi.org/10.21608/cat.2021.196712 (Accessed 15 May 2023)

Atmowidjojo, A., Wheeler, D.E., Erickson, E.H., Cohen, A.C. (1997). “Temperature tolerance and water balance in feral and domestic honey bees, Apis mellifera L.”. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. Part A: Physiology, 118(4), pp. 1399-1403. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0300-9629(97)00031-5 (Accessed 15 May 2023)

Cao, G., Wu, B., Xu, X., Wang, X., Yang, C. (2017). “The effects of local variation in light availability on pollinator visitation, pollen and resource limitation of female reproduction in Hosta ventricosa”. Botanical Studies, 58(24). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-017-0180-z (Accessed 15 May 2023)

Evangelista, C., Kraft, P., Dacke, M., Labhart, T., Srinivasan, M.V. (2014). ”Honeybee navigation: critically examining the role of the polarization compass”. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(1636), pp. 1-12. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0037 (Accessed 15 May 2023)

Flores, J.M., Gil-Lebrero, S., Gámiz, V., Rodríguez, M.I., Ortiz, M.A., Quiles, F.J. (2019). “Effect of the climate change on honey bee colonies in a temperate Mediterranean zone assessed through remote hive weight monitoring system in conjunction with exhaustive colonies assessment”. Science of The Total Environment, 653(2019), pp. 1111-1119. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.004 (Accessed 15 May 2023)

iSpot (2023). Home. [Online] Available at: https://www.ispotnature.org/ [Accessed 12 May 2023].

Karbassioon, A., Yearlsey, J., Dirilgen, T., Hodge, S., Stout, J.C., Stanley, D.A. (2023). “Responses in honeybee and bumblebee activity to changes in weather conditions”. Oecologia, 201(2023), pp. 689-701. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05332-x (Accessed 15 May 2023)

Kenna, D., Pawar, S., Gill, R.J. (2021). “Thermal flight performance reveals impact of warming on bumblebee foraging potential”. Functional Ecology, 35(11), pp. 2508-2522. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13887 (Accessed 15 May 2023)

Lawson, D.A., Rands, S.A. (2019). “The effects of rainfall on plant–pollinator interactions”. Arthropod-Plant Interactions, 13(2019), pp. 561-569. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-019-09686-z (Accessed 15 May 2023)

National History Museum (n.d.). Bombus. BumblebeeID – find British species by colour pattern. [Online] Available at: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/researchcuration/research/projects/bombus/key_british_colour.html [Accessed 15 May 2023].

Pellegrino, A.C., Penaflor, M.F.G.V., Nardi, C., Bezner-Kerr, W., Guglielmo, C.G., Bento, J.M.S., McNeil, J.N. (2013). “Weather Forecasting by Insects: Modified Sexual Behaviour in Response to Atmospheric Pressure Changes”. PLOS One, 8(10). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075004 (Accessed 15 May 2023)

Pires, E.M., Celmer, S.T., Ferreira, J.A.M., Mochko, A.C.R., do Amaral, A.G., Campos, A.K., Soares, M.A. (2012). “Daily Rhythm of Pollen Production by Apis melliferaL (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Sorriso, Mato Grosso State, Brazil”. Sociobiology, 59(4), pp. 1323-1334. Available at: http://ojs3.uefs.br/index.php/sociobiology/article/view/887 (Accessed 15 May 2023)

Polatto, L.P., Chaud-Netto, J., Alves-Junior, V.V. (2014). “Influence of Abiotic Factors and Floral Resource Availability on Daily Foraging Activity of Bees”. Journal of Insect Behaviour, 27(2014), pp. 593-612. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-014-9452-6 (Accessed 15 May 2023)

Sirois-Delisle, C., Kerr, J.T. (2018). “Climate change-driven range losses among bumblebee species are poised to accelerate”. Scientific Reports, 8(14464), pp. 1-10. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32665-y (Accessed 15 May 2023)

The Open University (2023a). S295: The biology of survival. Weeks 16-18 Topic 7 Surviving the cold and Investigation C. 7.1: Substrate cycling to generate heat. [Online]. Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1934403&section=9.1 [Accessed 15 May 2023].

The Open University (2023b). S295: The biology of survival. Week 24 Topic 11 Pollination. 2: Bumblebees. [Online]
Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1934428&section=4 [Accessed 15 May 2023].

The Open University (2023c). S295: The biology of survival. Weeks 14-15. 6.2 Spearman rank correlation. [Online]
Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1934398&section=8.2 [Accessed 9 May 2023].

It’s taken me so long to get this shot set up so I’m in the middle I really hope it’s fine so I often get asked by people as an open University student how do you do practicals how do you meet people and do field work how do you actually science

And I thought well as part of one of my biology modules this year I have had to do some practical work in a remote online fashion so I thought it would be fun to make a short little video so I can show what it’s like doing some science as a

Remote student with the OU um how we go about designing an experiment what trials and tribulations we had to go through Etc so let’s get straight into it I’m studying environmental science and I had a biology module which included five practical experiments and the main one at the end was focusing on

Pollinators and their behavior so we could pick any pollinator whether that be bees butterflies um Etc and look at a factor that changed their behavior or caused a difference in the sites that they visit that could be looking at flower color that could be uh light intensity wind speed temperature uh humidity sight

Variation species variation Etc my species identification looking at pollinators is generally so this was a nice little challenge to do the first step was to choose what you want to look at what you want to analyze and design a research question my main focus was I wanted to

Look at bumblebees because I have seen them around I have noticed how they come out more in summer and spring um and I wanted to look more at why and what effects that things like temperature and weather had on them now I knew a little bit about them bumblebees generally come

Out more during summer I wanted to see if this was the case in my area whether daily fluctuations and temperature had an effect whether there were other confounding variables like weather or cloudiness or things like that and also how this would affect other bee species like honey bees for instance after

Deciding on this question I thought we need to go and find a site around where I where I live and see if we can find any to analyze so I went to a field nearby close to my house um just out on a walk one day and I stopped cuz I could

Hear some mad buzzing there was a row of willow trees on the side of the field and I looked up and there were tens of bumblebees which was great cuz it marked out as a good site the problem was Widow trees are incredibly tall so it was

Going to be difficult to measure or to accurately count a how many bumblebees there were present and B standardize the method so I wasn’t counting at different heights so then I had a look at other sites in my area this included going to a nearby uh stream this is very

Nice First Impressions there’s there aren’t as many Willows as I would like from what I’ve seen it’s basically this side of a river bank and they need to be this side so I can observe the bees better here they’re quite spaced apart as well which will make it a bit more

Difficult for surveying I then also went up uh St Catherine’s Hill which is in Winchester because um there are quite a few flowers this time of year which was about April May time the problem was I could not find any bumblebees in either of these sites I’m not going to lie that

Was the trickiest bit was trying to find these insects that were in enough quantity for me to be able to use the data what am I to find was a cherry tree in the middle of my garden which I’d never really noticed before and what I found were tens of uh not only

Bumblebees also honeybees um which was fantastic for analysis and meant that it got me out of a bit of a sticky situation the next aage was to devise the experiment as to how I would measure these things I decided um in order to capture enough temperature variation I

Would sample every hour between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. at night for 5 days every hour I would go outside and stand uh by the cherry tree uh looking at a certain point on it which I marked out with a colorful hoop cuz resources observe or count how many bumblebees how many

Honeybees went visited the site inside the hoop interacted with a flower for more than 2 seconds I would count how many times that happened and I’d also try and identify the species of the bee if not possible then at least identify whether it was a bumblebee or honeybee

And do that for 10 minutes every hour the temperature data I recorded using a weather station that we have in the garden where the data are freely available online this will tell you things on temperature solar intensity wind speed wind direction humidity precipitation ation etc etc and so I calculated an

Average of the temperature within each 10 minute period within the hour so if I was sampling between 1:00 and 10 1 the weather station would record data at 4 past one and 9 past one I’d take an average between those two values which were usually the same and then get a

Temperature value for that 10 minute Peri period and therefore flat hour and so once the risk assessment had been made the stage was all set for some very early getups and some attempting to identify bumblebees the actual data collection took a long time but was really good fun there were

Some mornings where getting up at halfast 5 for a 6:00 a.m. start of sampling was a little bit much there were a few coffees rewind that there were quite a few coffees sampled to get me through the day it’s the morning of day three of data collection I made the mistake of

Falling back asleep in between counts I haven’t missed any but I’m now incredibly tired but no it was interesting it definitely improved my be identification skills particularly with bumblebees looking at the color of the abdomen um the color of the thorax what black and yellow stripes were there the

Main observation I had was that bumblebees tended or I saw more bumblebees in colder temperatures and earlier on in the morning and then as the temperature increased or I got to um about 12:00 1:00 2:00 I was seeing more honeybees which was very an interesting observation I did see a few mining bees

Which are tiny little solitary uh ground nesting bees which don’t buzz per se but um it was um it was interesting to see those also come up cuz I’ve not seen one before I didn’t include them in the results though and recording the temperature was very easy as well once I

Got back from a 10minute count as part of my routine I would try and identify any bumblebee sketches which ID made which I wasn’t able to do in the field um I then wrote down what species I’d seen uh how many observations I’d made and then also calculate the temperature

Average there and then I’d basically have 40 minutes to do whatever other work I needed to um and then get ready for the next count and what I weirdly liked is that I was doing another assignment at the same time for a different module and it made me very

Economical with my time so in the 40 minutes or so um the 45 minutes between counts I would try and give myself one task to do and usually be able to get it done within those 45 minutes if you add all those up together you end up accomplishing so many different tasks

Throughout the day so it’s definitely something that’s taught me about my working style for future so yeah that’s another valuable insight there were a few counts that had to be missed one of them was for a job interview another one was for making dinner and another one

Was because I think I did fall back asleep and ended up missing one um but all in all I got about uh 45 values um over the 5 days about 60 65 values for both temperature and observations which meant I had a lot of data to be able to um look at the

Relationship so once I’ve got all my spreadsheet filled out I conducted a series of correlation statistical tests to assess the relationship between temperature and the visits themselves I also looked at the difference in species and whether this changed with temperature whether that changed throughout the day another thing which I

Wrote down whilst I was in the field was uh what the weather was like if it was particularly cloudy or there was some rain present if it was particularly bright I did it more as a qualitative note to myself um because taking that forward into the results um it could be an extra

Consideration and now the main fun bit which was looking at the actual results and their implications and the discussion surrounding the importance of temperature and bumblebees so as the temperature increased the number of be visits also increased as the temperature decreased so did the number of B visits

One of the reasons is that potentially bees have to raise their thoracic temperature so the temperature inside their thorax to a suitable level in order for them to fly and to warm up their flight muscles and this requires energy they have to use energy in their body to raise their temperature

Internally The increased temperatures around them may mean that because they absorb heat from the environment they don’t need to expend as much energy in raising their internal temperature to fly efficiently and therefore it means they can conserve more energy uh it’s a better survival strategy overall than necessarily flying at lower temperatures

Where they need to use a lot of energy another possible explanation is that because temperature generally correlates with a light intensity throughout the day your hottest part of the day is normally about 12:00 p.m. 1 p.m. and that’s usually when the sun’s at its highest point and because they correlate

So tightly and the brighter conditions generally are the more colorful the flowers appear to bees uh the more likely they are to be out and pollinating and searching for nectar that could also be a possible explanation for why temperatures would increase B activity but this we still don’t know

The precise mechanisms behind this there could be multiple reasons there could be another reason we haven’t discovered yet um or something that we haven’t thought about yet so these are just some possible explanations there was one day where it rained quite hard and there was no statistically significant correlation

On that particular day and that I generally attributed to the fact that it was raining you may also think wait light intensity may also play a part in that because when it rains it’s generally cloudy however there are about three or four days out of the five that

Were Cloudy and the other three had positive correlations between temperature and B activity so Cloud I don’t think played a part or reduced light intensity I don’t think played a part in the data I saw and other leure I read said that potentially this is because of a weight thing if a bumblebee

Gets wet or a honeybee gets wet um by a raindrop it then has to use more energy to make itself Airborne because the water is quite heavy and so it’s generally a better survival strategy to go out when it’s not raining and what was exciting was that the Bumblebees I

Saw coming out at colder temperatures and the lack of honeybees coming out when it’s cold has also been looked at there’s a possible explanation that uh bumblebees emerge at colder temperatures to pollinate flowers to compensate for the lack of honey bees at that particular time of day and this may have

Implications for global climate change there is some possible resilience in these bees to cope with changing temperatures and to still be able to pollinate um as uh local conditions change but again that’s something we don’t know global warming is a massive issue that obviously we are aware of at

The moment and that could have massive implications for bumblebees and for honeybees and then if you think about it all of our food sources bees pollinate a great proportion of the world’s fruit and veg and crops and if these times when they’re pollinating change or their distribution changes we may not have the

Food availability and the food Security in future that we have at the moment or have had previously that’s going to affect the number of people our planet can support nutritionally which is obviously is also an ongoing issue and so yeah there is always the need to continue to monitor these

Behaviors to continue to monitor how global temperatures may be having an effect how this changes locally how this changes uh based on species how this changes based on crop species we are still trying to find out more and still trying to understand more what could likely be the case hopefully find out

These answers will mean that we are better prepared for adaptation and to know what’s going to happen next and how we can possibly mitigate against that so in conclusion bees are awesome which we knew already um no the main conclusion is from this study 80% of the data showed positive significant correlations

Between B visits and daily temperature there was an oberved qualitative difference between bee species and temperature so bum bumblebees generally came out at colder temperatures and honeybees came out later on in the day when it was slightly warmer rainfall could be an explanation for why there

Were a reduced number of Bey visits on a particular day and there are possible uh survival implications for adaptation for species resilience against issues like global climate change for few so I then spent many hours writing this all up and submitted it and had a lot of

Fun and I hope this video has given you some insight into how we actually do science with the OU and generally yeah what kind of things we do and how it generally works and if nothing else maybe Tau you a thing or two about bees I don’t know

Thank you very much for watching and it’s goodbye for [Applause] Now