College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Term of Award

Spring 2026

Degree Name

Master of Science in Biology (M.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Biology

Committee Chair

Isaac Park

Committee Member 1

Heather Joesting

Committee Member 2

Lissa Leege

Abstract

Climate change can alter the timing of bee and angiosperm phenology, potentially reshaping the seasonal availability of floral resources for bee species. Although plant-pollinator phenology has been widely studied in temperate systems, less is known about these dynamics in subtropical coastal ecosystems, such as barrier islands in the southeastern United States. In this study, we examined climate-driven changes in bee activity and floral resource availability across 16 barrier-island sites spanning from Florida to Virginia. Using museum bee occurrence records, herbarium-derived flowering phenology models, site-specific floristic inventories, and published bee-plant interaction data, we estimated species-specific bee activity periods and daily floral richness under historical (1911–1940) and contemporary (1991–2020) climate conditions. We then quantified changes in the timing and duration of bee activity and floral resource availability across multiple richness thresholds and tested whether these changes varied with latitude. Across sites, bee activity onset was the only bee phenology metric to shift significantly, with bees beginning activity later under contemporary climate conditions. Mixed-effects models revealed a strong latitudinal pattern in the timing of floral resource termination: higher-latitude sites showed stronger advances in the end of low, moderate, and high floral richness periods, whereas lower latitude sites tended to show weaker shifts or relative stability. Together, these findings indicate that climate-driven shifts in floral resource availability for bees on southeastern barrier islands are species-specific, with the strongest shifts occurring in late-season resources at higher-latitude sites.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

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