Student 10-Minute Presentation
Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity
Student
Student Competition
Rachael Halby
Marquette University
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Chelsea N. Cook
Assistant Professor
Marquette University
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Social organisms participate in collective behaviors to better manage ecological stress for the group. During thermal stress, social insects, such as honeybees, engage in thermoregulatory behaviors, including fanning, to help regulate temperatures in the hive. Individual participation in group thermoregulation is critical for the survival and success of the hive. However, it is unknown how thermal stress may influence individual response thresholds, and how that may impact collective behavioral responses. The western honeybee (Apis mellifera) is an excellent social organism to study how individual stress impacts collective behaviors. We hypothesize that thermal stress on individuals may impact social behaviors necessary for stress management. Here we measure fanning performance to show that individual heat stress and prior temperature experience in the honeybee negatively impact the critical collective behavior of fanning. Our results reveal that with only a 5°C increase in prior temperature experience, the probability of fanning drops drastically, the temperature of fanning increases significantly, and the overall survival rate decreases. Furthermore, these results exemplify how individual heat stress affects group performance of social thermoregulatory behavior. When we consider increasing global temperatures and more dramatic climate fluctuations, understanding the implications of heat stress in social insect systems is more vital than ever.