Bumblebee species can survive underwater for up to a week, reveals new study

A certain species of bumblebees can survive extreme water or flooding for several days, reveals a recent study that left scientists surprised.

The species of queen bumblebees, commonly found in eastern North America, can withstand increased floods brought on by climate change that threaten their winter hibernation burrows beneath the soil, reveals a study on Wednesday.

The study was led by Sabrina Rondeau, who is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa. The observations gathered from the study show that these pollinators can survive flood-like situations caused due to climate change, which is a sign of relief, as queen bumblebees are crucial to ecosystems.

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With global warming prompting more frequent and extreme floods in regions around the world, it poses "an unpredictable challenge for soil-dwelling species, particularly bees nesting or overwintering underground", co-author Nigel Raine of the University of Guelph said in a statement.

Accidental discovery that led to surprising results

Rondeau said she first discovered queen bumblebees could withstand drowning by accident. She had been studying the effect of pesticide residues in soil on queen bumblebees that burrow underground for the winter when water accidentally entered the tubes of the bees.

At first, she got scared that she might lose all those queen bumblebees, but to her surprise, they survived the water. She concluded that might be because the water was quite less, which was of no harm to them.

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She then launched another experiment to better understand what happened.

She with a team of researchers placed 143 hibernating queen bumblebees in tubes, some with no water as a comparative group, some floating in water and some fully submerged using a plunger for a period ranging from eight hours to seven days, according to the study published in the journal Biology Letters.

Surprisingly, about 81 per cent of the hibernating queens that were submerged in the water not only survived seven days but also remained alive for eight weeks after being returned to a dry environment.

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The common eastern bumblebees used in the study are found to be particularly able to survive bad weather conditions, not showing the same degree of population declines as other bee species, Rondeau said.

"So we are also wondering whether this resistance to flooding can be part of why they're doing so well," said Rondeau.

The study will now try to replicate other species of bumblebees to determine how common the trait is.

(With inputs from agencies)