To address climatic impacts on agriculture, Yaqian He and Eungul Lee have been working with entomologist (Yong-Lak Park; Jeong Joon Ahn) and horticulture scientist (Nicole Waterland) at WVU and acarologist in the University of Michigan to examine the impacts of future climate change on the multitrophic interactions among bees, a bee parasite (a mite), and blueberries in the Eastern U.S. (supported by USDA NIFA grant #2014-67004-21631). My collaborators and I have demonstrated that, under future climate scenarios, the number of generations of mites will likely increase by 1.5 to 2.0 times by the year 2100 [Ahn et al., 2016 PLoS ONE], and this will negatively affect pollinator bees. Understanding the phenology of the bee parasite in the context of climatic change is critical for crop pollination, which has a direct impact on the local farm economy.

In a follow-on study, we have examined the effects of future climate change on the key phenological events of Japanese honey bee in the Eastern U.S. Under future climate scenarios, a significantly longer duration of bee development, which we identified in the southern Eastern U.S., increases the potential risk of bees being exposed to pests [Lee et al., in revision Climatic Change].

Publications

Ahn, J. J., Y. Son, Y. He, E. Lee, and Y.-L. Park (2016), Effects of Temperature on Development and Voltinism of Chaetodactylus krombeini (Acari: Chaetodactylidae): Implications for Climate Change Impacts, PLoS ONE 11(8): e0161319. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0161319. [Link]

Lee, E., Y. He, and Y.-L. Park (in review), Effects of future climatic change on the phenology of the Japanese hornfaced bee in the Eastern United States, Climatic Change.

Funding sources

USDA-National Institute of Food & Agriculture (NIFA), Effect of climate change on multitrophic interactions among solitary pollinator bees, bee Parasites, and crops [2014-2015].