Unveiling the submerged secrets: bumblebee queens' resilience to flooding

In a previous study, an experimental oversight led to the accumulation of water filling a container housing diapausing bumblebee queens. Surprisingly, after draining the water, the queens were found to be alive. This observation raises a compelling question: can bumblebee queens endure periods of inundation while overwintering underground? To address this question, we conducted an experiment using 143 common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) queens placed in soil-filled tubes and subjected to artificially induced diapause in a refrigerated unit for seven days. Tap water was then added to the tubes and queens (n=21/treatment) were either maintained underwater using a plunger-like apparatus or left to float naturally on the water’s surface for varying durations (8h, 24h, or 7 days) while remaining in overwintering conditions. Seventeen queens served as controls. After the submersion period, queens were removed from the water, transferred to new tubes with soil, and kept in cold storage..., , , # Unveiling the submerged secrets: bumblebee queens' resilience to flooding

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvsk](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvsk)

This README file describes the data package accompanying the publication: Rondeau S, Raine NE. 2024. Unveiling the submerged secrets: bumblebee queens' resilience to flooding. *Biology Letters.* doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2023.0609

## Description of the data and file structure

The file \"Data_flooding.csv\" contains the dataset analyzed in the study. The description of each variable is as follows:

* Bee_ID: unique bumblebee queen identifier
* Maternal_colony: the parental colony of each queen
* Weight: weight of the queens, in mg
* Submersion: submersion regime (ctl = Control; floating = Left to float; underwater = Maintained underwater)
* Duration: submersion duration (N/A = not applicable; 8 = 8 hours; 24 = 24 hours; 7 = 7 days)
* Tx: Treatment (combination of 'Submersion' and 'Duration': e.g. floating_24 = Left to float d...