North-westward range expansion of the bumblebee Bombus haematurus into Central Europe is associated with warmer winters and niche conservatism

Abstract

Range expansions of naturally spreading species are crucial for understanding how species interact with the environment and build their niche. Here, we studied the bumblebee Bombus haematurus Kriechbaumer, 1870, a species historically distributed in the eastern Mediterranean area which has very recently started expanding northwards into Central Europe. After updating the global distribution of this species, we investigated if niche shifts took place during this range expansion between colonized and historical areas. In addition, we have explored which climatic factors have favoured the natural range expansion of the species. Our results indicated that Bombus haematurus has colonized large territories in 7 European countries outside the historical area in the period from the 1980s to 2018, a natural expansion over an area that equals the 20% of the historical distribution. In addition, this bumblebee performs generalism in flower visitation and habitat use, although a preference for forested areas emerges. The land-use associated with the species in the colonized areas is similar to the historical distribution, indicating that no major niche shifts occurred during the spread. Furthermore, the component of climate change that favoured this colonization is the warming of winter temperatures and similar warming rates took place during both overwintering and queens emergence phases. These findings document a case of natural range expansion due to environmental change rather than due to niche shifts, and specifically they indicate that warmer winters are playing a major role in the process of natural colonization of new areas.