Few plants are self-pollinating: pollination largely depends on wind, water, or animals. Pollinating insects are therefore a key component of plant reproduction and global biodiversity, providing vital ecosystem services to crops and wild plants that are essential for humanity. This is why their decline is so concerning: agricultural production depends on pollination, so a decrease in pollinators impacts the agricultural system, food security, and human well-being.
This decline is caused by several factors, including climate change. Rising temperatures and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, especially in spring—the most critical period for ecosystems—make it harder for pollinators to find favorable conditions for their activities and to adapt to these new circumstances
The impacts of climate change can occur at all levels of biological organization: from the individual level—altering activity patterns—to the species level, causing local or regional extinctions, and even affecting entire ecosystems.
In the plant world, changes in climatic parameters can lead to shifts in the spatial and temporal distribution of plants. For instance, some plant species—crucial for pollinators—may move to higher altitudes or latitudes. Such shifts also affect pollination, as pollinators may not always be able to respond or adapt to these changes.
Recent studies have shown that changes in the flowering times of many wild plants, whose phenology is influenced by air temperature (now higher on average than in the past), as well as the earlier flight periods of many pollinating insect species, have led to a mismatch between the phenology of pollinated plants and their pollinators. This, in turn, has altered the seasonal availability of pollination services.
Projected climate scenarios suggest even more significant future effects on the essential ecosystem service provided by pollinators, leading to cascading impacts on agricultural production and, consequently, on human well-being.
For this reason, protecting pollinators in the face of climate change—by implementing adaptation strategies like those promoted by the BEEAdapt project—must be an absolute priority for all communities.
1 See Duchenne et al. (2020), which analyzed 2,027 species of European insects and highlighted that most pollinating insects have advanced their activity periods by nearly a week in response to climate change. Over the past 60 years, their flight period has shifted forward by six days, with a reduction in flight duration by two days. These changes have likely disrupted the seasonal distribution of pollination services, decreasing the synchrony between pollinators and flowering periods.
Article written for the LIFE BEEAdapt project with contributions from CNR-IBE and Legambiente.
