Discussion
We tested three hypotheses concerning climate change and alpine insects,
by exploring the responses to climate change of four bumblebee species
currently inhabiting cold areas of the mountains of southern and central
Europe, a part of the world under severe, unprecedented warming and
climate change. Here, we explored the environmental features associated
with the species distribution, modelled the present distribution to
infer future occurrences under realistic climatic conditions, identified
the distribution refugia constituting priority areas for conservation
and estimated the elevational shift over time.