Title: Thermodynamic assessment of the impact of the climate change on the honeybees

Authors: Cennet Yildiz; Mustafa Özilgen

Addresses: Department of Chemical Engineering, Yeditepe University, Kayışdağı, 34755 İstanbul, Turkey ' Department of Food Engineering, Yeditepe University, Kayışdağı, 34755 İstanbul, Turkey

Abstract: Injury of honeybees with climate change will jeopardise pollination and food security. Thermodynamic parameters which may affect the honeybees due to global warming are assessed based on their sucrose metabolism. With 3,000 honeybees, work performance was 3.17 kJ/kg dry air, heat generation was 4.44 kJ/kg dry air and the entropy generation is 161.6 W/g honeybee K while raising the temperature of the hive by 1°C. On the other hand, they have to perform 4.5 kJ/kg dry air of work, generate 7.27 kJ/kg dry air of heat and 308.9 W/g honeybee K of entropy to reduce the temperature of the hive by 1°C. The results show that during cooling by 1°C the honeybees perform 1.4 folds of work and generate 1.9 folds of entropy when compared to that of heating by 1°C, implying that global warming may create 90% more entropy stress on the honeybees, when compared to that of cooling.

Keywords: thermodynamic modelling; climate change; global warming; honeybee; indicator organism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2019.097864

International Journal of Global Warming, 2019 Vol.17 No.2, pp.185 - 218

Received: 01 May 2018
Accepted: 11 Aug 2018
Published online: 20 Feb 2019 *

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