Climate change in the Eastern Amazon: crop-pollinator and occurrence-restricted bees are potentially more affected

Abstract

There is pressing need to anticipate the impacts of climate change on species and their functional contributions to ecosystem processes. Our objective is to evaluate the potential bee response to climate change considering (1) response traits—body size, nest site, and sociality; (2) contributions to ecosystem services (effect trait)—crop pollination; and (3) bees’ size of current occurrence area. We analyzed 216 species occurring at the Carajás National Forest (Eastern Amazon, Pará, Brazil), using two different algorithms and geographically explicit data. We modeled the current occurrence area of bees and projected their range shift under future climate change scenarios through species distribution modeling. We then tested the relationship of potential loss of occurrence area with bee traits and current occurrence area. Our projections show that 95% of bee species will face a decline in their total occurrence area, and only 15 to 4% will find climatically suitable habitats in Carajás. The results indicate an overall reduction in suitable areas for all traits analyzed. Bees presenting medium and restricted geographic distributions, as well as vital crop pollinators, will experience significantly higher losses in occurrence area. The potentially remaining species will be the wide-range habitat generalists, and the decline in crop-pollinator species will probably pose negative impact on pollination service. The north of Pará presented the greatest future climatic suitability and can be considered for conservation purposes. These findings emphasize the detrimental effects on biodiversity and agricultural production by climate change and provide data to support conservation planning.