The Butterfly Effect: Global Warming Changes Butterfly

Habitat and Behavior

(NaturalNews) Butterflies inhabit every continent except Antarctica. Flitting from flower to
flower, they assist in pollination. People are awed by their fragile beauty but more
importantly, butterflies indicate the health of the environment. Cold-blooded, butterflies are
dependent upon temperature, just as are rodents, birds, frogs and other insects. Measuring
butterfly response to warming temperature helps researchers all over the world gauge the
effect of climate change, and researchers are finding that butterflies are seeking new habitat
to find the temperatures they need.

In an article titled, "Butterflies Across Europe Face Crisis as Climate Change Looms,"
researchers warn that Europe will lose much of its biodiversity due to global warming as
indicated by a study of butterfly distribution conducted by the Climatic Risk Atlas of
European Butterflies, which involves hundreds of European scientists. One of the authors of
the study, Dr Josef Settele, said: "The Atlas shows for the first time how the majority of
European butterflies might respond to climate change. Most species will have to shift their
distribution radically."

In Great Britain, declines in butterflies led researchers to consider saving the butterflies by
moving them to cooler areas. Researchers at Durham University caught Marbled White and
Small Skipper butterflies in North Yorkshire, and transplanted them to County Durham and
Northumberland where, eight years later, the species were found to be thriving. Professor
Brian Huntley of Durham University hailed this experiment in "assisted colonisation" as a
possible role in wildlife conservation.

This idea is also being pondered among conservation biologists in the United States. Known
as "assisted migration" moving a butterfly to a more congenial place presents many problems.
Will a butterfly fit in the new home? What about the plants it depends on or other aspects of
its habitat? Which butterflies should be moved?

At UC Davis, California, Arthur Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology for 35 years,
monitored fixed routes for butterfly populations twice a month at ten sites from Suisun Bay to
the Sierra Nevada in central California, accumulating data on over 150 species of butterflies.
On April 18, 2005, Shapiro counted 21 species and 378 individual butterflies in Gates
Canyon near Vacaville.

On April 18 of the following year, 2006, Shapiro counted just 10 species and 43 individual
butterflies. "Butterflies," Shapiro notes in 2010, "are being hit hard by the combination of
lower temperatures and habitat loss."

"I used to be able to walk 15 minutes from my lab and find common sootywing larvae. Now I
know of only one permanent colony in the whole county," Shapiro says. "Butterflies that
were once considered utterly common, including willow hairstreak, large marble and West
Coast lady, are going into a tailspin."
Shapiro reported three major findings: Butterfly diversity is being lost at sea level but is
increasing at tree line as butterflies migrate to cooler areas. High elevation butterflies are
being lost since they cannot move higher. When an area changes from rural to urban or
suburban, the greatest butterfly losses occur.

At the University of Melbourne, Australia, butterflies are found to be emerging 10 days

earlier than they did 65 years ago. This led researchers to establish, for the first time, a causal
link between "increasing greenhouse gases, regional warming, and the change in timing of a
natural event." Researchers found that air temperature around the city of Melbourne has been
increasing incrementally every decade, and, over the 65 year period, the Common Brown
butterfly (Heteronympha merope) has shifted its emergence date 1.6 days earlier per decade.