Project title: Temperature Increases and Bee Populations

Team: The Bee Team

Presentation Community College   Dublin   Ireland   5 Student’s age: 14-15 years old, 16-17 years old

What effect does increases in temperature have against solitary bee populations?

We found that as a result of climate change, global temperatures have been increasing, evidence of this can be found using Met Eireann’s data. We then posed the question, does this affect Solitary Bees in any way? After doing some research we found that through sources like pollinators.ie to use their article on 15 bee species for beginners (pollinators.ie))) to decide on what species to further research. We then used The National Biodiversity Centre online (biodiversityireland.ie)) to use their biodiversity maps. We found that more people are recording them, so the data was not helping our research question. We also did some research in our local park to collect primary data which indicated that there were few flowers blooming at the time, so we did not see many signs of life.

After many weeks of research and investigation we were unable to conclude whether temperature increases effect solitary bees with a decrease in their populations by disrupting the symbiotic relationship between bees and flowers by shifts in blooming seasons. We were not able to prove this point using our primary data. Data sources like biodiversity maps would indicate that they are increasing. We believe this is a result of more awareness about solitary bees and education of the public, causing an influx in people to begin recording and reporting bees online. So, although our results did not directly answer our research question there is still promising evidence online that shows bee populations are declining, seasons are shifting, and temperature increases which backs up our hypothesis. Bee populations have been increasing because there is more work being done with protecting bee habitats. Our hypothesis was that the bee populations would decline but it has done the opposite. We realised that as more awareness has been spread, that people are taking care of the habitats which bees live in.

Our research question was “What effect does increases in temperature have against solitary bee populations?” we researched the topic, we found that the bee populations are increasing in studies because more people are recording them. It has been colder during the springtime this year. The temperature has been increasing rapidly. However, flowers are still blooming and have been since the start of March. At this time of year, you will see a lot of cherry blossom trees around and solitary bees like them. I think we should try plant more fruit trees around the school. I think we should plant flowers that stay alive for the longest (perennial flowers). An example of a perennial flower is the Vinca which is a genus plant meaning it can adapt to many different natures. I think this would be a good flower to plant around the school because they stay alive for a long time, longer than the solitary bee. We also concluded that we obviously cannot change the temperature, so we need to decrease other human factors which effect pollinators, like destruction of natural habitats, mowing the grass and using pesticides to grow their plants.

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