Climate change is disrupting both natural and man-made ecosystems. It’s estimated by 2080s the earth will be ~4°C warmer; how species will respond to these changes remains unclear. One possible response is adaptation to these new environments. We asked how different populations of Osmia lignaria responded to new and warming environments and if there was adaption/acclimation over multiple generations to these warming environments. To do this we look O. lignaria from Utah, Washington, and California and brought them all into an almond orchard in Orland, CA. During the first year we released the natal populations (F0) into the orchard and let all three populations to develop under CA temperatures. Their offspring (F1) and the offspring’s offspring (F2) was released back into the same orchard in year 2 and then again in year 3 to track multiple generation adaptations. We found four major results 1) Bees that developed in CA despite their genetics developed at the same rate as CA populations after only one year 2) Bee body size steadily decreased year after year and in year 3 those bees 2-years reared in CA were the same size as CA natal bees. 3) Reproduction rates increased as the populations acclimated to CA temperatures. 4) Pollination efficacy increased by 20% when using bees that were acclimated to the environment that they were foraging in. This suggests that these species may be more resilient to climate change than thought and have built in strategies to mitigate the effect of future climate change scenarios.
.png)
