00:00Bees are vital to producing the fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other foods humans rely on.
00:08And while they're generally heat tolerant, scientists say the warming climate is putting bees at risk.
00:16One of the most interesting things we found is that the vast majority of the species that we are looking at,
00:24as their body temperature heats up, which happens as the environment warms up,
00:30they become dehydrated.
00:32And that was sort of unexpected.
00:33And then when we looked at sort of their limits, like how much heating can they tolerate,
00:37how much dehydration can they tolerate, what we found is as they got hotter,
00:42as their body temperatures got hotter, they became close to their dehydration limits
00:47way before they reached their overheating limits.
00:51And when the bees' environment gets stressful,
00:53they spend their time searching for shade or water instead of pollinating.
00:57Another concern is the lack of diversity among the bees we do have.
01:04The bee diversity does decline when it becomes more urban, when you have more pavement.
01:10But if you plant more flowers, it erases that decline.
01:14So it could be as simple as planting more flowers,
01:17planting more flowers that bloom at different times of year,
01:20that provide nectar and pollen resources for the bees at different times of year.
01:24That could be the biggest solution.
01:27Data is limited on how much climate change is contributing to pollinator decline.
01:33U.S. government cuts to bee research programs could mean a long wait for answers.
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