Life‐history traits predict the ability of British wild bees to fill their climate envelopes

Abstract Understanding a species' ability to fill its climate envelope is crucial to understanding barriers to dispersal, and for predicting capacity to respond to climate change. If a species is not present in its climate envelope, its absence is likely due to non‐climatic environmental factors including (1) dispersal limitations, (2) unsuitable habitat and resources, and (3) insufficient data. This study investigates the relationship between British wild bees' life‐history traits and their ability to occupy their climate envelopes. The ability of a species to fill its climate envelope was calculated as the proportion of its climate envelope containing a presence record. The relationship between climate envelope filling ability and four life‐history traits – lecty (pollen foraging specialisation), overwintering stage, body size and habitat breadth was assessed. Across 64 species of wild bees, this study reveals large species, with generalist foraging behaviour and wide habitat breadth, filled a greater proportion of their climate envelope than smaller bees, with restricted foraging preferences and narrow habitat requirements. This study also found that while larger, generalist species are relatively more successful at filling their climate envelopes, many species do not fill the entirety of their potential climate envelopes. In the context of climate change, this study raises the issue that Great Britain may experience a homogenisation of future bee communities, dominated by widespread generalist species, better able to overcome the non‐climatic barriers to filling their climate envelope.