The climate change is a threat to the survival of bumblebees

Bumblebees already have to contend with lethal infections, deadly pesticides and habitat loss due to agriculture and urban development. A new study shows they have another cause for worry: climate change.

Over the last century, warming temperatures have noticeably shrunk the areas where bumblebees live in North America and Europe, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

Bumblebees are important pollinators of wild plants as well as of food crops. Other research has shown that the common Eastern bumblebee, for example, provides pollination services worth an average of 390 USD per acre of crops in areas where it is found.

As a result, bumblebee decline could have serious implications for both ecosystem function and food production, scientists said. (MTI)