There are over 20,000 known bee species in the world. North America is home to about 4,500 native bee species.
At Missouri State University, behavioral ecologist Dr. Avery Russell studies bees. He is also an assistant professor in the biology department.
Based on his research on bee sonication (buzzing), Russell co-authored a paper with several other researchers. Titled “Global patterns and drivers of buzzing bees and poricidal plants,” it was recently published in Current Biology, a journal that publishes original research across all areas of biology.
It aims to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings from diverse fields and through highly accessible editorial articles that explicitly aim to inform non-specialists.
“Our main focus was to understand the ecological drivers of this buzzing behavior,” Russell said. “Not only with the bees themselves, but with the plants that require buzzing for pollen release.”
The authors are experts from across the globe in areas, such as animal behavior, buzz pollination, bee and plant systematics, and biogeography.
They spent extensive time consulting other experts, investigating existing literature and making observations to document which bees can buzz, which plants have floral morphology that requires buzzing, and where they occur.
What’s the buzz about?
According to Russell, about 90% of flowering plant species are insect pollinated, and bees are crucial for the pollination of many crops and wild plants.
It is estimated that one-third of the food humans consume is animal-pollinated. Bees play a significant role in helping to produce fruits, vegetables and other crops essential for human nutrition.
However, bee populations continue to decline due to artificial effects, such as pesticides, poor land management, and climate change.
Some bees use buzzing, also known as floral sonication or buzz pollination, to collect pollen from certain types of flowers that hold onto their pollen tightly by concealing it within tube-like structures. The bees violently vibrate the tube-like anthers of flowering plants — like a saltshaker — to extract and collect the pollen to feed their offspring.
It is estimated that only 50-60% of bees can buzz to collect pollen.
Key findings
The research revealed a strong association between the proportion of bees that buzzed and the richness of plant species that require buzzing for pollen release. Regions with more buzz-pollinated plant species had a greater proportion of buzzing bee species and this pattern held for multiple bee families.
“This correlation suggests a co-evolutionary relationship,” Russell said. “In this relationship, the distribution of bees and plants is linked by mutual dependence on buzzing behavior for reproduction and pollination.”
The implications of these findings extend beyond ecological patterns into conservation and agricultural strategies. With bees playing a crucial role in the environment, understanding the factors influencing their distribution becomes necessary for biodiversity conservation and sustainable food production.
Russell and the other researchers are already planning what’s next for their research. They aim to delve deeper into specific bee families and regions that have been under–studied. The goal is to understand how environmental factors, such as climate and habitat influence bee and plant distributions at a finer scale.