UNM alum research examines the future of bees in the Southwest
April 14, 2024 - Mary Beth King
Newly published research by The University of New Mexico alumnus Melanie Kazenel and colleagues predicts climate change will reshape bee communities in the southwest United States, with some thriving and others declining. The research, titled Heat and desiccation tolerances predict bee abundance under climate change, was recently published in Nature, an international journal publishing peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology.
Kazenel completed her Ph.D. in Biology at UNM in 2022 and is currently a visiting assistant professor of Biology at Earlham College in Indiana.
“I study how native bees are responding to climate change,” Kazenel said. “Bees are the most important pollinators of many wild plants and agricultural crops, meaning that they are crucial to sustaining natural ecosystems and the human food supply. But there is increasing evidence that bees are threatened globally. Factors known to threaten bees include habitat loss, pesticides, disease, and climate change. However, climate change has been less-studied relative to other factors that threaten bees.
"Our research sought to fill this important knowledge gap. In particular, in the southwestern US, the climate is becoming warmer and drier over time, as well as more variable from year to year. We aimed to understand how these changes impact bee communities in our region.”
The research was conducted at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR) near Socorro, N.M., as part of the National Science Foundation-funded Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research Program (SEV-LTER).
Full story at UNM Newsroom
