Hauling field gear up Gothic Mountain…
In recent decades, rapid warming has altered the environmental conditions experienced by many organisms. One ofthe most commonly documented biological responses to warming is range shifts, in which populations shift theirdistributions primarily towards higher latitudes and altitudes to track areas of climatically suitable habitat. Rangeshifts in bees may be of particular interest. Many aspects of bee life-histories, including their development, survival,and reproduction, are directly linked to temperature; yet bees are also indirectly affected by the availability of otherfactors such as floral resource abundance and nest-site availability, which may themselves be affected bytemperature. I am proposing two field studies that investigate the potential for upslope range shifts in cavity-nestingbees by exploring the variables that determine their upper range limits. In the first study, I ask whether the potentialfor range shifts in cavity-nesting bees is limited by the lack of nesting cavities at high elevations where trees anddead wood (nesting substrates) may be scarce. In the second study, I ask whether the potential for range shifts incavity-nesting bees is limited by the short duration of periods of favorable temperatures for offspring development athigh-elevations. My proposed fieldwork will combine both observational and experimental techniques to addressthese questions.
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