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Q28 - Bumblebee-Flower Mismatch Under Climate Warming

Theoretical B Real exam question - full text reproduced under IBO's CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
Coevolution & Species Interactions

High-altitude Rocky Mountains (U.S.A.) bumblebee communities were studied 40 years ago and again today, and a set of changes was noted, and these were related to climate change (Fig.).

A, change in summer temperature in the Rocky Mountains; B, change in tongue length in a mountain bumblebee community (blue bars, 1966; red bars, now); and C, change in diversity of flowering plant species with different depth, i.e. access to bees, between 1966 (blue) and today (red) (from Miller-Struttmann et al. 2015).

Figure 1. Figure 1.

Using the information and data, determine which of the statements are true or which are false.

A. The present-day bumblebee community is less diverse than in 1966
B. Higher temperature favours nectar-plant specialist bumblebees
C. Low-altitude bumblebee species have not been able to invade the higher altitudinal zones during the 40 study years
D. Average depth of flowers has decreased during the 40 study years, favoring shorter-tongued bumblebees
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Question reproduced from IBO 2015, Theoretical Exam B, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - attributed to the International Biology Olympiad. Open the full exam PDF · Community solutions (unofficial)