Bumblebees affected by 2018 extreme UK weather, experts say

Hot summer favoured some rare bees but the spring freeze led to a poor year for 24 species

Press Association

Wed 29 May 2019 06.00 BST

Last year’s weather extremes, from snowstorms to drought, led to a tough year for many of the UK’s bumblebees, conservationists have said.

But several rare species which emerge late and love hot conditions had a very good year, a report from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust reveals.

Data collected by volunteers through the spring and summer showed that freezing conditions late February and early March, as the country was hit by the “beast from the east”, delayed the start of the 2018 bumblebee season.

Most of the 24 species of UK bumblebee got off to a slow start and only reached normal numbers in July. Experts said that suggested the queen bees were late out of hibernation and slow to produce large numbers of workers.

The hot, dry, summer caused further problems for the insects, with many species declining more quickly than normal as the year progressed and the heatwave wilted and parched flowers, reducing the amount of food for them.

The early bumblebee had its worst year since 2012 when near constant rain occurred, while species commonly seen in people’s gardens such as the garden, buff-tailed, heath and white-tailed bumblebees, all had poor years.

Last year was the worst for the number of individuals per species recorded since the washout weather in 2012, and conservationists are concerned that that could have a knock-on effect for 2019 numbers. That is because the heatwave could have affected the number of queens which made it into hibernation last winter.

The country’s bumblebees could face long-term problems from the more frequent heatwaves that the UK is likely to experience with climate change, the wildlife organisation warns.

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Extreme weather 'potentially catastrophic' for bats

By Helen BriggsBBC News

4 May 2018

Extreme weather appears to be disrupting the life cycle of Europe's bats.

Scientists were alarmed to find that some bats in Portugal skipped winter hibernation altogether this year while others gave birth early.

The findings add to growing fears that rising temperatures are having unpredictable effects on bats, birds and other wildlife.

Bats born early in the year may suffer due to lack of insect food.

"It's a phenological mismatch," said Dr Hugo Rebelo of the University of Porto, who is studying the impact of climate change on several Mediterranean bat species.

"What this means is that the bat birth is more or less synchronised with the time of emergence of insects so that when bats give birth there are plenty of resources to feed on and then to feed their own pups.

"With these chaotic weather patterns we are having now in winter and spring we don't know if everything is being mixed up. "

Underground roosts

Rare bat species have been routinely monitored in Portugal at their underground roosts since the 1980s.

In order to survive the winter months, bats must hibernate as there are not enough insects flying around in the winter to meet their energy demands.

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Butterflies could be about to be wiped out by extreme weather

The effect is probably already happening
 

Andrew Griffin

Monday 31 October 2016

Extreme weather could threaten the existence of Britain’s butterflies, according to a new study.

Heat waves, cold snaps and heavy rain have probably already contributed to crashing populations of butterflies, the scientists behind the study say. And that same effect is likely to continue.

While scientists have long known that climate change can cause lasting and intense damage to ecosystems, scientists know a lot less about the way that shorter spells of extreme weather can affect them.

The new study looked at data from the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme to explore how butterfly populations have changed. That data includes information on populations from more than 1,800 sites in the UK across 37 years.

The team found that rainfall level during the cocoon life stage of butterflies adversely affected more than a quarter of butterfly species in the UK.

But the greatest harm was caused by extreme heat during the "over-wintering" life stage, which had an impact on more than half the species.

Study co-author Dr Aldina Franco, from the University of East Anglia, said: "This may be due to increased incidences of disease or potentially extreme hot temperatures acting as a cue for butterflies or their larvae to come out from over-wintering too early and subsequently (be) killed off by temperatures returning to colder conditions."

Hot weather was found to benefit warmth-loving adult butterflies, leading to a positive population change in more than a third of species.

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