Microclimate and season affect flight initiation in the alfalfa leafcutting bee
Data files
Feb 12, 2025 version files 91.19 KB
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Activityflight.csv
15.23 KB
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ActivityTemps2.csv
13.63 KB
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HotBoxHisto.csv
17.02 KB
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HotBoxHisto2.csv
40.09 KB
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README.md
3.33 KB
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tempperbox.csv
1.89 KB
Abstract
Weather conditions are often reported for a large area, but small-bodied organisms experience abiotic conditions on a finer scale. For insects that nest in cavities, the temperatures in and around the cavity may be important for flight initiation. Cavities can expose nesting bees to conditions that differ from broad weather readings and may affect when or if bees fly. The purpose of this study is to determine which environmental factors influence flight in early and late summer and how altering internal cavity temperatures contributes to flight initiation in a cavity-nesting bee, Megachile rotundata. Two types of nest boxes were created to monitor flight initiation. The first nest box had no manipulations and recorded several abiotic environmental conditions, including multiple temperatures, light, wind speed, and humidity. The second nest box had one side heated and the other unmanipulated. The first flight for individual bees was recorded and measured from 7-11 am daily. All environmental variables at the time of first flight were significantly different between the early and late seasons except for air pressure. Throughout the summer, temperatures inside and at the face of the first nest box design were higher than ambient at first flight. Heating the nest cavities promoted flight at lower ambient temperatures and at earlier times. Understanding how abiotic conditions affect flight initiation will help model flight behavior in response to climate change and allow farmers to provide optimal flight conditions when weather is unfavorable.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s7h44j1gt
Description of the data and file structure
Environmental data was auto-generated by an electronic weather station that was created to measure microclimate data. GoPros automatically recorded video of the entrance of the nesting boxes to SD cards between 7am-11am every day. Video data was analyzed in the lab to determine first flight of individual bees.
Files and variables
File: Activityflight.csv
Description:
Variables
- Bee: individual ID
- Box: replicate
- Date: date of flight observation
- Julian_Date: fate of flight observation
- Date_Timing: season (early or late)
- Flight_Time: time of first flight (hour:min:sec)
- Time_Mins: time of first flight in minute format
- Sunrise: time of sunrise
- Time_Sunrise_Diff: difference between sunrise and first flight time
- SinceSunrise_Mins: difference between sunrise and first flight time in minutes
- Outside: ambient temperature (celsius) at first flight
- Humidity: percent humidity at first flight
- Pressure: air pressure (pascals) at first flight
- Inside: internal temperature at first flight
- Face: temperature at the front of the nest box at first flight
- Light: light (lux) at first flight
- Wind: wind speed (meters/sec) at first flight
File: ActivityTemps2.csv
Description:
Variables
- Bee: individual ID
- Date: date of observation
- Date_Mod: season timing (early or late)
- Location: thermocouple location
- Reading: temperature (Celsius) at first flight
File: HotBoxHisto.csv
Description:
Variables
- Lannister: replicate name
- Box: nesting box choice within replicate (heated or control)
- Box_Num: heated or control as a number
- Hole: nesting coordinates (grid system) used to identify individual bees
- Date: observation date (month/day/year)
- Time: time of first flight
- Time_Num: first flight time as a number
- Temp1: temperature in the control box at first flight
- Temp2: temperature in the heated box at first flight
- Ambient: ambient temperature at first flight
Notes: NA values = data not available or applicable.
File: tempperbox.csv
Description:
Variables
- Date: observation date
- Box: heated or control nesting box
- Rep: replicate number
- Temp: temperature (celsius)
File: HotBoxHisto2.csv
Description:
Variables
- Lannister: replicate
- Box: heated or control nesting box
- Box_Num: box as a number
- Hole: nesting coordinates to identify individual bees
- Date: observation date
- Time: time of first flight
- Time_Num: first flight as a number
- Temp1: control box temperature
- Temp2: heated box temperature
- Ambient: ambient temperature
- Temp_Flight: temperature at first flight designated by "Box", this column combines data from Temp1, Temp2, and Ambient columns
- Box_Treat: categorized temperature based on internal or ambient temperature at first flight
Notes: NA values = data not available or applicable.
Code/software
All data files are saves as .csv files. Data was imported into R. Data was visualized, processed, and analyzed using the following packages: car, dplyr, lme4, nlme, emmeans, lubridate, plyr, ggplot2.