A new study, building on previous research, has revealed the remarkable adaptations of hibernating bumblebee queens to cope with being submerged - and this whole line of research was kicked off by an accident.
In 2022, whilst undertaking research for her PhD on how pesticides impact bumblebees at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Sabrina Rondeau (now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Ottawa in Canada) discovered something unusual. In the refrigerated soil-filled tubes - a condition mimicking natural winter conditions - containing bumblebee queens, four of the tubes had filled with water and the queens were submerged. But interestingly, they were still alive.
This prompted a further formal researcher, published in Biology Letters in 2024. The study examined 143 North American common eastern bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) in various conditions of submergence, and found that they could survive for a week underwater.
After publishing this research, Rondeau teamed up with Charles-Antoine Darveau, a professor at the University of Ottawa, who was studying the metabolism of bumblebee queens during diapause - the state in which bumblebee queens spend the winter, similar to hibernation in mammals (and the common porwill).
Together with honours student Skyelar Rojas, their new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, examined how these bumblebees are able to avoid drowning.
The study showed that the bumblebees were able to lower their metabolic rate - reducing their need for oxygen - and keep breathing whilst underwater. In addition, they were able to produce energy via anaerobic metabolism, which doesn’t require oxygen.
“They’re not relying on just one strategy,” says Darveau. “They combine underwater gas exchange with anaerobic metabolism. That flexibility is what allows them to survive these extreme conditions.”
After being removed from the water, the bumblebees slowly woke up over a few days, and the researchers noted they were breathing at a higher rate than the bumblebees that hadn’t been submerged, indicating the removal of the lactic acid built up during anaerobic metabolism.
"This study shows how resilient these pollinators are,” adds Darveau. “Understanding these mechanisms helps us predict how bumblebee populations might cope with increasingly frequent spring floods.”
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