What is it about?
The red mason bee is an important pollinator of many plants also commercially used ones. Its mating behaviour is quite complex and the male needs to achieve various traits to be chosen by a female. We have shown that changes in temperature can influence male traits significantly which might disrupt communication with the female and mating. Especially considering climate change this might lead to big problems for this important pollinator.
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Why is it important?
With climate change being an unavoidable fact it is important to understand how changes in temperature might affect animals not just in terms of habitation range but also subtler changes like the disruption of communication and mate choice as we have found.
Perspectives
The impact of temperature on organisms seems to be mainly studied as a question of changes in range and disappearing species. However, sometimes the impact is much subtler and might work in slow ways to change populations. I think it is important to pay attention to these things in regard to climate change. I also enjoy working on chemical and, the much less known, vibrational communication and how both work in tandem to "get the message across"
Taina Conrad
Universitat Ulm
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The effect of temperature on male mating signals and female choice in the red mason bee, Osmia bicornis
(L.), Ecology and Evolution, September 2017, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3331.
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