DOI: 10.5061/dryad.3j9kd51sb
title: Data and code from: Life-history traits predict ability of British wild bees to fill their climate envelopes

description: Understanding why species fail to occupy the full extent of their
 climatically suitable ranges is critical for predicting responses to
 climate change. We examined 64 species of British wild bees to test how
 life-history traits influence the ability to fill climate envelopes.
 Climate envelopes were defined from species distribution models, and range
 filling was quantified as the proportion of each envelope containing a
 presence record. We then assessed relationships with four traits: pollen
 foraging specialization (lecty), overwintering stage, body size, and
 habitat breadth. Our analyses reveal that larger-bodied, generalist
 species with broad habitat use filled a greater proportion of their
 climate envelopes than smaller, specialist species with narrower habitat
 requirements. Very few species, all common generalist species, fully
 occupied their potential climatic ranges, highlighting the role of
 non-climatic barriers such as dispersal limitations and resource
 availability. These findings suggest that climate change may drive
 homogenization of British bee communities, favoring widespread generalist
 species able to overcome barriers to dispersal. This dataset contains the
 species trait data, climate envelope estimates, and reproducible R code
 that underpin these analyses.
description: 1\. ABOUT THE DATASET \------------ Title: Dataset and R code associated
 with the manuscript "Life-history traits predict ability of British
 wild bees to fill their climate envelopes" Creators: Chris Wyver
 ([https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8661-0859)](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8661-0859\)%20), Stuart P. M. Roberts Organisation(s): Centre for Agri-Environmental Research, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading RG6 6AR Rights-holder(s): University of Reading Publication Year: 2025 Description: This dataset contains biological traits and range filling metrics of 64 species of wild bee, as well as R code used to reproduce the results presented in the manuscript 'Biological traits predict ability of British wild bees to fill their climate envelopes'. This dataset contains bee presence data, climate envelope size, and life history traits (body size, habitat breadth, pollen foraging specialization (lecty), and overwintering stage). Climate envelopes were developed in Wyver, C., Potts, S.G., Edwards, M., Edwards, R. and Senapathi, D., 2023. Spatio‐temporal shifts in British wild bees in response to changing climate. *Ecology and Evolution*, 13(11), p.e10705. Cite as: Wyver, C. & Roberts, S. P. M. R., (2025). Data code from: Life-history traits predict ability of British wild bees to fill their climate envelopes. Dataset. DOI: 10.5061/dryad.3j9kd51sb. Related publication: Wyver, C., Potts, S.G., Roberts, S. P. M. R., and Senapathi, D. (2025). Life-history traits predict ability of British wild bees to fill their climate envelopes. *Ecological Entomology*. Accepted for publication Contact: Chris Wyver, [c.wyver@reading.ac.uk](mailto:c.wyver@reading.ac.uk) 2\. PROJECT AND FUNDING INFORMATION \------------ Title: Mitigating risks to pollination services caused by climate change - PhD Project Dates: Sept 19 - Jan 24 Funding organisation: BBSRC via Waitrose Collaborative Training Partnership Grant number: BB/T508895/1 WorldWide Fruit Ltd contributed to the funding and development of this project.   3\. CONTENTS \------------ RangeFillingData.csv - A .csv file containing all the data used to re-create the results in the manuscript "Biological traits predict ability of British wild bees to fill their climate envelopes". It contains biological traits and range filling metrics of 64 species of wild bee. It also contains traits data, comprising of four life-history traits (body size, habitat breadth, pollen foraging specialization (lecty), and overwintering stage, emergence period and voltinism) for each species. \- 8 variables, 64 rows Variables: \- Species: taxonomic name for each of the 64 species of bee used in this analysis. Character \- Suitable.Habitat.Area: The number of grid squares containing suitable climate for the bee species. Derived from Wyver, C., Potts, S.G., Edwards, M., Edwards, R. and Senapathi, D., 2023. Spatio‐temporal shifts in British wild bees in response to changing climate. *Ecology and Evolution*, 13(11), p.e10705. Numeric \- Presence.Cells: The number of cells in Suitable.Habitat.Area containing a presence record from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). This dataset can be downloaded from [https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.axexgg](https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.axexgg). Numeric \- Percent: The percentage of cells in Suitable.Habitat.Area containing a presence record (Presence.Cells/Suitable.Habitat.Area)*100. Numeric \- Habitat.Breadth: Number of habitats able to be used by each species, according to the European Red List of Bees. Numeric \- Body.Size: Mean interteguar distance, measured in mm, used as a proxy of size for each species. Numeric \- Lecty: Pollen foraging specialization of each species. Character \- Overwintering: Overwintering stage of each species. Character   RangeFillingCode.R - R script used to produce the analysis in the manuscript "Climate-driven phenological shifts in emergence dates of British bees". It contains details of the models used to understand how traits influence a species ability to fill its climate envelope.   Tree.tre - A phylogenetic tree containing the 64 species of wild bee used in this analysis. Derived from Hedtke, S. M., Patiny, S., & Danforth, B. N. (2013). The bee tree of life: A supermatrix approach to apoid phylogeny and biogeography. *BMC Evolutionary Biology*, 13(1). [https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-138](https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-138)   5\. METHODS \----------- Bee range filling was calculated using presence-only records of bee observations, obtained from GBIF in Great Britian, and from climate envelopes, created in Wyver et al. (2023) Spatio-temporal shifts in British wild bees in response to changing climate. A range filling percentage was calculated (the number of grid squares classified as suitable climate with an observation record, as a percentage of total number of grid squares classified as suitable climate.), and linear regression modelling used to test for the effects of three biological traits on the range filling percentage. ### Changelog: October 7, 2025: Replaced R script with a version that depersonalizes data locations and working directories.