>  it seems that we can infer earlier and longer blooms of plants of value
to bees.

The question then is whether that pollen is of as much value to the bees as
it used to be.
Elevated CO2 reduces plant tissue's (including pollen's) nutritive value.
A scary finding regarding locusts was recently published -- Nutrient
dilution and climate cycles underlie declines in a dominant insect
herbivore.  Unfortunately still paywalled.  A snip from the discussion:
"grasshopper abundances decreased with reduced foliage tissue
concentrations of N, P, K, and Na, even as the total quantity of the
vegetation  increased by 60%. In short, even as the prairie became
“greener,” the amount of nutrients per mouthful of plant tissue yielded
fewer nutrients. Such declines are expected to continue, with rising CO2
and climate change models predicting increasing temperatures and growing
season precipitation for the Midwestern United States"

-- 
>
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html