Landscape and Climate-Associated Selection in the Native and Widespread Bumblebee, Bombus terrestris
Kardum Hjort, Cecilia LU ; Dudaniec, Rachael Y. LU ; Olsson, Peter LU
; Ekroos, Johan
LU
and Smith, Henrik G.
LU
(2025)
In Molecular Ecology
34(21).
- Abstract
Anthropogenic land-use and climate change pose novel selection pressures on bees, yet their evolutionary responses in terms of morphological or physiological adaptations remain unclear. While adaptive responses are expected, these may be constrained by gene flow when changes in selection pressures are spatially heterogeneous. The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) is a widespread species that copes well with anthropogenic land-use and climate change, suggesting high adaptive capacity or phenotypic plasticity. Here, we genotyped populations of native B. terrestris in south and central Sweden using RADseq to investigate genetic structure and local adaptation across a paired design of agricultural landscapes with high and low... (More)
Anthropogenic land-use and climate change pose novel selection pressures on bees, yet their evolutionary responses in terms of morphological or physiological adaptations remain unclear. While adaptive responses are expected, these may be constrained by gene flow when changes in selection pressures are spatially heterogeneous. The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) is a widespread species that copes well with anthropogenic land-use and climate change, suggesting high adaptive capacity or phenotypic plasticity. Here, we genotyped populations of native B. terrestris in south and central Sweden using RADseq to investigate genetic structure and local adaptation across a paired design of agricultural landscapes with high and low land-use complexity along a geographic climate gradient. We expected to find genetic structure reflective of regional barriers to gene flow, and molecular evidence for local adaptation to differing landscape and climate conditions. We found genetic structure separating southern Sweden from more northern regions, with a negative Tajima's D indicating a potential population expansion, likely northwards and inland into forested areas, consistent with observational data indicating a range shift. We found weak but significant evidence for local adaptation to climate and land use, specifically to agricultural land cover, including genes under putative selection linked to insecticide resistance. Signatures of selection were also identified in relation to latitude, temperature, and urban land cover, with other candidate SNPs associated with olfaction and immune response. Our results suggest that B. terrestris successfully responded to anthropogenic land-use and climate changes, likely due to its generalist traits, enabling phenotypic adaptation to changing environments.
(Less)
- author
- Kardum Hjort, Cecilia
LU
; Dudaniec, Rachael Y.
LU
; Olsson, Peter
LU
; Ekroos, Johan
LU
and Smith, Henrik G.
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- agriculture, Bombus terrestris, gene flow, landscape simplification, morphology, neutral genetic divergence, selection
- in
- Molecular Ecology
- volume
- 34
- issue
- 21
- article number
- e70141
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:41065137
- scopus:105018500622
- ISSN
- 0962-1083
- DOI
- 10.1111/mec.70141
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- id
- 635045a2-7459-4e55-b1fe-b93dfb54ba12
- date added to LUP
- 2025-12-17 10:42:47
- date last changed
- 2025-12-31 11:38:37
@article{635045a2-7459-4e55-b1fe-b93dfb54ba12,
abstract = {{<p>Anthropogenic land-use and climate change pose novel selection pressures on bees, yet their evolutionary responses in terms of morphological or physiological adaptations remain unclear. While adaptive responses are expected, these may be constrained by gene flow when changes in selection pressures are spatially heterogeneous. The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) is a widespread species that copes well with anthropogenic land-use and climate change, suggesting high adaptive capacity or phenotypic plasticity. Here, we genotyped populations of native B. terrestris in south and central Sweden using RADseq to investigate genetic structure and local adaptation across a paired design of agricultural landscapes with high and low land-use complexity along a geographic climate gradient. We expected to find genetic structure reflective of regional barriers to gene flow, and molecular evidence for local adaptation to differing landscape and climate conditions. We found genetic structure separating southern Sweden from more northern regions, with a negative Tajima's D indicating a potential population expansion, likely northwards and inland into forested areas, consistent with observational data indicating a range shift. We found weak but significant evidence for local adaptation to climate and land use, specifically to agricultural land cover, including genes under putative selection linked to insecticide resistance. Signatures of selection were also identified in relation to latitude, temperature, and urban land cover, with other candidate SNPs associated with olfaction and immune response. Our results suggest that B. terrestris successfully responded to anthropogenic land-use and climate changes, likely due to its generalist traits, enabling phenotypic adaptation to changing environments.</p>}},
author = {{Kardum Hjort, Cecilia and Dudaniec, Rachael Y. and Olsson, Peter and Ekroos, Johan and Smith, Henrik G.}},
issn = {{0962-1083}},
keywords = {{agriculture; Bombus terrestris; gene flow; landscape simplification; morphology; neutral genetic divergence; selection}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{21}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Molecular Ecology}},
title = {{Landscape and Climate-Associated Selection in the Native and Widespread Bumblebee, Bombus terrestris}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mec.70141}},
doi = {{10.1111/mec.70141}},
volume = {{34}},
year = {{2025}},
}