Dozens of honey bees, which usually feed on wild flowers after leaving their hives (蜂房) in the campus gardens, were tricked into the cottage to feed from an artificial flower. Only one bee was allowed in at a time, and their visits to artificial flowers were videoed and timed under different fan speeds, which mimicked (模拟) calm and windy days.
But the researchers are trying to help them: it is a controlled experiment that reveals how high wind speeds significantly reduce the efficiency of their feeding.
With no wind, the bees on average took nectar (花蜜) from 5.45 flowers during their 90— second time trial. When wind speeds were increased, this fell to an average of 3.73 flowers.
Researchers also examined the indirect impact of higher winds by moving the flowers.
The findings reveal that, while flower movement did not appear to have an effect on the bees, the movement of air from the fans made them much more hesitant to take off from a flower, with time taken ranging from an initial 0.05 seconds to 54 seconds.
Georgia Hennessy, lead author of the research, said that one possible reason for the wind causing hesitancy was that small increases in wind speed reduced the bees body temperature, so they require longer to warm up the fight muscles required to take off.
"With wind speeds predicted to increase in the years ahead, understanding how we can help bees in a changing climate is becoming ever more pressing. Although we can't do much to control or stop the wind, we can take steps to reduce its impact on bees, such as placing hives in sheltered locations," said Hennessy.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization warned last year that the decline in global bee populations was a "threat to global food security and diversity'.
Dave Goulson, professor of biology at the University of Sussex, said: "Bees already face many pressures in the modern world, such as loss of habitats and exposure to pesticides (杀虫剂)，and a great many are in decline. Coping with increasingly windy weather under climate change may be the final straw.
