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Species conservation under future climate change: the case of Bombus bellicosus, a potentially threatened South American bumblebee species

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Abstract

Bees ensure 35 % of global food production, but this service is endangered due to several threats. Declines in bumblebee populations (genus Bombus) have been reported worldwide. Bombus bellicosus is one of the rare cases of reported threatened bumblebees in South America. It was once widespread in southern Brazil’s grasslands until the 1960s. During that time, that area underwent increasing land use which led to a decrease in bee abundance and richness, and to local disappearance of B. bellicosus. Climate change is also believed to cause declines in the abundance of B. bellicosus. Here we used species distribution models to assess potential effects of climate changes on the distribution of B. bellicosus in southern Brazil, considering both current and future climate scenarios. Our results show that the suitable climatic conditions for B. bellicosus will retreat southwards. A wax cover inside its nests is usually related to Bombus species inhabiting cooler climates. This cover enables the maintenance of higher temperatures inside the nest and may be deleterious for the species under future warmer climates. Continuously growing land use is the second major threat to this pollinator. The results presented here may eventually provide theoretical grounds and enable practical conservation actions for B. bellicosus protection in South America, especially given the potential adverse effects of climate changes for this species.

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Acknowledgments

ACM would like to thank all the researchers who made their Entomological Collections open-access online and provided several of the B. bellicosus occurrences used here. ACM would also like to thank the curators Betina Blochtein (PUC-RS) and Maria H. Galileo (Fundação Zoobotânica-RS) for allowing the exam of their collections and Rafael Kamke who personally examined B. bellicosus specimens in the bee collection of UFSC. We would like to thank Sara Lodi, Solana Boschilia, Victor Gonzalez, and two anonymous reviewers for critical comments on the manuscript. ACM and DPS received doctorate fellowships from CNPq—Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (148685/2010-2 and 147204/2010-0, respectively). PDMJ and GARM have been continuously supported by grants from CNPq.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Biologia Comparada de Hymenoptera, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Caixa Postal 19020, Curitiba, PR, CEP 81531-980, Brazil

    Aline C. Martins & Gabriel A. R. Melo

  2. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Rua Augusto Correia, Guamá, Belém, PA, CEP 66075-110, Brazil

    Daniel P. Silva

  3. Theory, Metapopulation and Landscape Lab, Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás Campus II, Caixa Postal 131, Goiânia, GO, CEP 74001-970, Brazil

    Paulo De Marco Jr.

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  1. Aline C. Martins
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  2. Daniel P. Silva
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  3. Paulo De Marco Jr.
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  4. Gabriel A. R. Melo
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Correspondence to Daniel P. Silva.

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Martins, A.C., Silva, D.P., De Marco, P. et al. Species conservation under future climate change: the case of Bombus bellicosus, a potentially threatened South American bumblebee species. J Insect Conserv 19, 33–43 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-014-9740-7

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