Journal Article

Forecasting the Effects of Global Change on a Bee Biodiversity Hotspot

Hoge, Steven T., Danforth, Bryan N., Buckner, Mark A.

2024

Overview

The Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, recognized as a global hotspot for bee biodiversity, are experiencing habitat degradation from urbanization, utility‐scale solar energy (USSE) development, and climate change. In this study, we evaluated the current and future distribution of bee diversity, assessed how protected areas safeguard bee species richness, and predicted how global change may affect bees across the region. Using Joint Species Distribution Models (JSDMs) of 148 bee species, we project changes in species distributions, occurrence area, and richness under four global change scenarios between 1971 and 2050. We evaluated the threat posed by USSE development and predicted how climate change will affect the suitability of protected areas for conservation. Our findings indicate that changes in temperature and precipitation do not uniformly affect bee richness. Lower elevation protected areas are projected to experience mean losses of up to 5.8 species, whereas protected areas at higher elevations and transition zones may gain up to 7.8 species. Areas prioritized for future USSE development have an average species richness of 4.2 species higher than the study area average, and lower priority “variance” areas have 8.2 more species. USSE zones are expected to experience declines of up to 8.0 species by 2050 due to climate change alone. Despite the importance of solitary bees for pollination, their diversity is often overlooked in land management decisions. Our results show the utility of JSDMs for leveraging existing collection records to ease the inclusion of data‐limited insect species in land management decision‐making. The American Desert Southwest is home to approximately one‐quarter of North American bee species. However, warming temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and development threaten to drive bee species redistribution, highlighting the need to include these data‐limited but ecologically vital species in land management decisions.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,John Wiley and Sons Inc,Wiley
• Subject: Alternative energy sources / Applied Ecology / bee conservation / Bees / Biodiversity / Biodiversity Ecology / Biodiversity hot spots / Climate change / Climate prediction / Community Ecology / Conservation areas / Conservation Ecology / Decision making / Deserts / Ecosystems / Emissions / Entomology / Environmental degradation / Environmental economics / General circulation models / Geographical distribution / global change / Global Change Ecology / Insects / joint species distribution model / Land management / Plant reproduction / Pollination / Population decline / Protected areas / Protected species / renewable energy / Renewable resources / Solar energy / Spatial Ecology / Species richness / Transition zone / Urbanization