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Climate Change Shrinks Bumblebee Habitat Across Europe: Only Cutting Fossil Fuels Can Stop the Loss

From VRT NWS · () Dutch

Translated from Dutch and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Documents & data Context piece
  • A study of 47 bumblebee species found that climate change reduced suitable habitat by an average of 5% across Europe, with local losses reaching 19%.
  • Belgium experienced an average decline of 6.2%, while the Rhône Valley in France recorded Europe’s largest local reduction.
  • Researchers said warmer conditions are pushing bumblebees northward or to higher elevations, and that only reducing fossil-fuel emissions can halt the species’ decline.

Bumblebees are losing suitable habitat across Europe as the climate warms, with the decline reaching 19% in some areas. Belgium has lost an average of 6.2% of its suitable habitat, according to a study by Belgian researchers.

The researchers examined more than 800,000 observations covering 47 bumblebee species. They compared the climate recorded between 1901 and 2019 with a simulation of conditions without global warming, allowing them to estimate the effect of climate change on bumblebee habitat.

The impact has grown stronger since the 1980s, alongside the acceleration of global warming. Southern and central Europe face the heaviest losses. In France’s Rhône Valley, suitable habitat has declined locally by 19%, the largest reduction recorded in Europe.

Bumblebee populations have been under pressure for some time due to urbanisation and intensive agriculture, but it is now clear that climate change is also having a major impact.

— Rosa PietroiustiThe study’s co-author described climate change as an additional pressure on declining bumblebee populations.

Bumblebees are important pollinators for crops and wild plants, particularly in cold and wet conditions when other bees are less active. In Belgium, they help pollinate crops including apples and strawberries. As warmer areas become unsuitable, bumblebees are moving northward or to higher elevations. Mountain species face especially severe pressure because they may have nowhere left to go.

Rosa Pietroiusti, a co-author and researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, said gardens designed to support bumblebees could provide extra time and offer a simple action for individuals. But she said only reducing fossil-fuel emissions can stop the disappearance of the species. The study involved researchers from ULB, UMons, VUB, UCLouvain, KU Leuven and the University of Antwerp, and appeared in Nature Climate Change.

Bumblebee-friendly gardens give us some extra time and are a simple step that everyone can take. Only by reducing fossil-fuel emissions can we really halt the disappearance of these species.

— Rosa PietroiustiPietroiusti outlined individual and policy responses to the habitat loss.
About this summary

Originally published by VRT NWS in Dutch. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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