Climate change could be disrupting the relationship between bees and plants.
That's according to a study that says warmer springs can change the life cycles of bees, which can throw them out of sync with the plants they pollinate
The research is the first clear example of the potential for climate change to disrupt such critical relationships between species.
The study, Potential Disruption of Pollination in a Sexually Deceptive Orchid by Climate Change, was carried out by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and will be published in the journal Current Biology.
Researchers studied long-term trends in historical records dating back to 1848.
Records of a solitary bee (Andrena nigroaenea) from museum specimens were compared with those of the flowering time of the Early Spider Orchid (Ophrys sphegodes) and Met Office climate records.
They found that warmer springs cause orchids to flower earlier. But this does not correspond exactly with the earlier flying of the bees.
The study shows that for every degree increase in the average early spring temperature, male bees start flying around nine days earlier .
Meanwhile female bees emerge slightly later than males, near peak orchid pollination time.
This means that when the time comes for pollination to occur, the male bees will instead be distracted by the females.
'These orchids have evolved so that when spring comes, their flowers appear at the same time as this specific bee - making pollination possible,' said Researcher Dr Karen Robbirt from UEA's School of Biological Sciences.
'But we have shown that plants and their pollinators show different responses to climate change, and that warming will widen the timeline between bees and flowers emerging.
'If replicated in less specific systems, this could have severe implications for crop productivity.'
Researchers studied long-term trends in historical records dating back to 1848. Records of a solitary bee (Andrena nigroaenea, shown) from museum specimens were compared with those of the flowering time of the Early Spider Orchid (Ophrys sphegodes) and Met Office climate records
Lead researcher Professor Anthony Davy from UEA's School of Biological Sciences added: 'Under normal conditions, male bees are deceived into inadvertently pollinating orchid flowers during what we call "pseudocopulation".
'But this process could be disrupted by climate change.'
'Warming by as little as 2°C causes the males to emerge much earlier, meaning they are less well synchronised with the orchids.
'The problem is compounded by the female bees which are also emerging earlier, and attracting the attention of the male bees. This means that the male bees are more likely to copulate with the female bees, rather than pollinating the orchids.
'There will be progressive disruption of pollination systems with climatic warming, which could lead to the breakdown of co-evolved interactions between species because they either respond either to different seasonal cues, or to the same cues at different rates.'
