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Solar Eclipse Was Buzzkill for Bees

Last summer's total solar eclipse sliced right through Columbia, Missouri. "It was remarkable¹. As a biologist I generally reserve that word 'remarkable' for biological phenomena²."Candace Galen is based at the University of Missouri, in Columbia. And, being a biologist, she thought, why not use this astronomical³ phenomenon to study a biological one? Specifically: as the skies darkened, would daytime pollinators, like bumblebees and honeybees, call it quits? "What better activity during an eclipse than to go out with a recorder and record the bees? "

去年夏天的日全食席卷了密苏里州的哥伦比亚。“这是非凡的。作为一名生物学家，我通常对生物现象保留“卓越”这个词。坎迪斯·盖伦(Candace Galen)就职于哥伦比亚的密苏里大学。作为一个生物学家，她想，为什么不利用这个天文现象来研究一个生物学现象呢?具体来说:随着天空变暗，像大黄蜂和蜜蜂这样的日间传粉者会就此罢休吗?“在日食期间，有什么比带着录音机去记录蜜蜂的活动更好的呢?”

So Galen asked 400 citizen scientists—including young students—to place audio recorders in 16 flower patches along the path of totality, in Oregon, Idaho and Missouri. When they analyzed⁴ the audio, they found that during partial eclipse, bee buzzing continued. But when totality hit, the bees went silent… and only the conversational⁵ buzz of human observers could be heard. Then, as the moon passed and the sun again lit up the sky, the bees regained⁶ their buzz.The full write-up is in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America. [Candace Galen et al, Pollination⁷ on the Dark Side: Acoustic⁸ Monitoring Reveals Impacts of a Total Solar Eclipse on Flight Behavior and Activity Schedule of Foraging⁹ Bees]

所以盖伦让400名市民科学家——包括年轻的学生——在俄勒冈州、爱达荷州和密苏里州全食区的16片花丛中放置录音机。当他们分析音频时，他们发现在日偏食期间，蜜蜂的嗡嗡声还在继续。但是当全食袭来的时候，蜜蜂就沉默了……只有人类观察者的谈话声才能听到。然后，当月亮过去，太阳再次照亮了天空，蜜蜂恢复了嗡嗡声。这篇完整的文章发表在美国昆虫学会的年报上。

Galen and her colleagues did notice one strange detail: the individual buzzes lasted longer than normal during the partial eclipse periods. Perhaps, Galen says, because the bees were flying more slowly to navigate¹⁰ darker conditions. Or maybe they were returning to their nests, thinking the day was through. It's hard to tell from the recording¹¹, she says. Which is why, come the next American total solar eclipse in 2024, she'll be back out listening once again. "I'm a scientist, my curiosity is never satisfied, right?"

盖伦和她的同事确实注意到了一个奇怪的细节:在日偏食期间，个体的嗡嗡声比正常情况下持续的时间更长。盖伦说，也许是因为蜜蜂在黑暗的环境中飞行的速度更慢。或者，他们可能正在回巢，以为这一天已经过去了。她说，从录音中很难分辨出来。这就是为什么，在2024年下一次美国日全食的时候，她又会回来听。“我是科学家，我的好奇心从未得到满足，对吧?”