Can your home beat the heat? Why some bees are more at risk from climate change than others.

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Bee species that nest in plant stems appear to be at the greatest short-term risk from increasing temperatures due to climate change, while those that nest in the ground are more able to evade extreme heat, according to new research from Australian evolutionary ecologists.

The study, published today in the international journal Nature Communications (link), assessed heat tolerance in 95 different native bee species in eastern mainland Australia, at all latitudes from north to south.

Researchers from Macquarie University, The University of Sydney, La Trobe University, Flinders University, University of Wollongong, Adelaide University and The University of Queensland investigated the way tolerance to heat has evolved across diverse bee species and compared their sensitivity to climate change.

Australian native bees – of which there are some 1700 species – have three main nesting behaviours: some nest in burrows in the ground, some in wood cavities like tree hollows or fallen dead branches, and others in plant stems or existing holes in small twigs.