Bees Are Losing the Pitch on Their Typical ‘Buzzing’ Sound — and It’s Bad News for Our Planet

Bees are the workhorses of magic. So tiny, they might even slip your eye while you’re strolling in your flowerbed. Spot them and their little antennas will shiver, emitting sounds of buzz, as if generating electricity. And while they produce these electric buzzes, these vibrations enable the tiny hairs on their body to trap nectar from the flowers. They’ve got top-notch expertise in pollination. No wonder, all those bluebells, butterfly bushes, bee balms, and buttercups hire them regularly for their pollinating services. However, a new study presented at the Society for Experimental Biology revealed that, lately, these yellow-and-black creatures have been losing their buzzing frequency due to climate change. Not good news.

Researchers started this study by investigating colonies of buff-tailed bumblebees. The first piece of information they analyzed was the muscle mechanism of bees. Analysis revealed that these pollen-shaking insects also use their muscle power for functions other than flying. Lead researcher, Doctor Charlie Woodrow from Uppsala University, found that bees employ their muscular system for defense against predators and for producing these buzzing vibrations, according to ScienceDaily.

Illustrating a visual of his findings, Dr. Woodrow explained that while a bee is perched on a flower to sip nectar and extract pollen, she engages in a series of behaviors that depict her muscles in function. At first, the bee curls and wraps its body around the pollen-containing anthers of the flower. While slurping the nectar from the petal cup, it contracts its flight muscles up to 400 times per second to produce buzzing vibrations, which, eventually, shake the pollen loose. The pollen, in turn, sticks to the tiny hairs on its body.

Global warming 

However, these days, as the Sun’s fury is baking up the planet a lot more than ever, these bees seem to lose the frequency of their vibrations. And while these vibrations become disturbed, their pollinating services are affected. This also affects the pollen release of the flowers, thereby disrupting plant reproduction and overall pollinating services. Currently, the effect is blurry, but in the coming years, a cumulative effect could entirely put a stop to plant pollination. If this happens, it would be a disaster for life on Earth, as Dr. Woodrow and scientists conveyed through this research. 

Two factors of climate change

During the study, scientists evaluated a diverse range of factors that could be behind the disruption in bees’ buzzing behavior. Two factors that came to highlight were rising temperatures and exposure to heavy metals. These factors appeared to reduce the contraction frequencies of the flight muscles during non-flight buzzing. But climate change couldn’t be the only factor. Based on the sound recordings the team collected, the disturbed buzz could also be a marker of stress or environmental change, particularly environmental pollutants. And maybe, muscle physiology too.

Muscle physiology could be the main factor

Dr. Woodrow conducted various experiments on the bees to study the effects of temperature on their buzz. He and his colleagues measured the frequency of their buzz in the Arctic and compared these readings with those received from the bees in the South. The readings were almost similar, which came as a surprise. This indicated that not climate change, but muscle physiology could be a primary factor responsible for the changing pitch of their buzzing vibrations.

Ultra-sensitive instruments

Every reading, every recording, was measured using high-tech instruments such as accelerometers and tiny sensors. While accelerometers were used to measure the frequency of the buzz, the sensors captured up to 400-hertz tremors that would go on to reveal any trembling or disruptions under environmental stress. In a nutshell, this research is a hint for you. The next time you see a bumblebee crawling on a magnolia, remember that all it needs from you is a little step in the direction of climate control.

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