DOI: 10.5061/dryad.s7h44j1gt
title: Microclimate and season affect flight initiation in the alfalfa leafcutting bee

description: Weather conditions are often reported for a large area, but small-bodied
 organisms experience abiotic conditions on a finer scale. For insects that
 nest in cavities, the temperatures in and around the cavity may be
 important for flight initiation. Cavities can expose nesting bees to
 conditions that differ from broad weather readings and may affect when or
 if bees fly. The purpose of this study is to determine which
 environmental factors influence flight in early and late summer and how
 altering internal cavity temperatures contributes to flight initiation in
 a cavity-nesting bee, Megachile rotundata. Two types of nest boxes were
 created to monitor flight initiation. The first nest box had no
 manipulations and recorded several abiotic environmental conditions,
 including multiple temperatures, light, wind speed, and humidity. The
 second nest box had one side heated and the other unmanipulated. The first
 flight for individual bees was recorded and measured from 7-11 am daily.
 All environmental variables at the time of first flight were significantly
 different between the early and late seasons except for air pressure.
 Throughout the summer, temperatures inside and at the face of the first
 nest box design were higher than ambient at first flight. Heating the nest
 cavities promoted flight at lower ambient temperatures and at earlier
 times. Understanding how abiotic conditions affect flight initiation will
 help model flight behavior in response to climate change and allow farmers
 to provide optimal flight conditions when weather is unfavorable.
description: # Microclimate and season affect flight initiation in the alfalfa
 leafcutting bee
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s7h44j1gt](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s7h44j1gt) ## Description of the data and file structure Environmental data was auto-generated by an electronic weather station that was created to measure microclimate data. GoPros automatically recorded video of the entrance of the nesting boxes to SD cards between 7am-11am every day. Video data was analyzed in the lab to determine first flight of individual bees. ### Files and variables #### File: Activityflight.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables * Bee: individual ID * Box: replicate * Date: date of flight observation * Julian_Date: fate of flight observation * Date_Timing: season (early or late) * Flight_Time: time of first flight (hour:min:sec) * Time_Mins: time of first flight in minute format * Sunrise: time of sunrise  * Time_Sunrise_Diff: difference between sunrise and first flight time * SinceSunrise_Mins: difference between sunrise and first flight time in minutes * Outside: ambient temperature  (celsius) at first flight * Humidity: percent humidity at first flight * Pressure: air pressure (pascals) at first flight * Inside: internal temperature at first flight * Face: temperature at the front of the nest box at first flight * Light: light (lux) at first flight * Wind: wind speed (meters/sec) at first flight #### File: ActivityTemps2.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables * Bee: individual ID * Date: date of observation * Date_Mod: season timing (early or late) * Location: thermocouple location * Reading: temperature (Celsius) at first flight #### File: HotBoxHisto.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables * Lannister: replicate name * Box: nesting box choice within replicate (heated or control) * Box_Num: heated or control as a number * Hole: nesting coordinates (grid system) used to identify individual bees * Date: observation date (month/day/year) * Time: time of first flight * Time_Num: first flight time as a number * Temp1: temperature in the control box at first flight * Temp2: temperature in the heated box at first flight * Ambient: ambient temperature at first flight Notes: NA values = data not available or applicable.  #### File: tempperbox.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables * Date: observation date * Box: heated or control nesting box * Rep: replicate number * Temp: temperature (celsius) #### File: HotBoxHisto2.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables * Lannister: replicate * Box: heated or control nesting box * Box_Num: box as a number * Hole: nesting coordinates to identify individual bees * Date: observation date * Time: time of first flight * Time_Num: first flight as a number * Temp1: control box temperature * Temp2: heated box temperature * Ambient: ambient temperature * Temp_Flight: temperature at first flight designated by "Box", this column combines data from Temp1, Temp2, and Ambient columns * Box_Treat: categorized temperature based on internal or ambient temperature at first flight Notes: NA values = data not available or applicable.  ## Code/software All data files are saves as .csv files. Data was imported into R. Data was visualized, processed, and analyzed using the following packages: car, dplyr, lme4, nlme, emmeans, lubridate, plyr, ggplot2.