In the Northern Hemisphere, most animals and plants are shifting their ranges northward in response to climate change to track warming temperatures. Many bumble bees, however, are disappearing from the southern edges of their range without expanding at the northern edges, resulting in range contractions. Despite their cold-adapted evolutionary history, the mechanisms behind the lack of cool range edge expansions remain unknown. It is unknown why many bumble bee species, despite their cold-adapted evolutionary history, are failing to expand at their cooler range edges. Drawing on the dramatic elevational gradients and associated climate gradients at Mount Rainier National Park, I am asking how climate and body size interact to influence inter-annual dispersal, overwintering survival, and thermal tolerances of individual bumble bees of multiple species. The results of this research will contribute to prediction of future bumble bee population dynamics in the face of global change.
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