Honey Bees Weigh In on Climate
-
- Visualizations by:
- Ernie Wright
- View full credits
This animation illustrates the relationship between the annual vegetation cycle and seasonal variations in the weights of honey bee hives. The weight of a hive increases in the spring as bees bring back nectar from flowering plants. The change in hive weight over time can be compared with satellite measurements of vegetation. Tracking a large number of hives this way can reveal the effects of changing climate and land use on the interaction of plants and pollinators. Data from this hive in Highland, Maryland and others suggests that for some locations in the U.S., spring is arriving earlier by as much as half a day per year, probably due to a combination of climate and the warming effect of urbanization.
This animation has been incorporated into the video "Feeling the Sting of Climate Change," which provides more background and introduces HoneyBeeNet, a central repository for hive weight data from across the U.S.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio The Next Generation Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
-
Animator
- Ernie Wright (USRA) [Lead]
-
Visualizer
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
-
Scientist
- Wayne E. Esaias (NASA/GSFC)
-
Producer
- Jennifer A. Shoemaker (UMBC)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
Highland, MD Bee Hive Weight
Terra and Aqua Blue Marble Land Cover (Collected with the MODIS sensor)
Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
See more visualizations using this data setNote: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.