Historical changes in the phenology of British Odonata are related to climate

Abstract

Responses of biota to climate change take a number of forms including distributional shifts, behavioural changes and life history changes. This study examined an extensive set of biological records to investigate changes in the timing of life history transitions (specifically emergence) in British Odonata between 1960 and 2004. The results show that there has been a significant, consistent advance in phenology in the taxon as a whole over the period of warming that is mediated by life history traits. British odonates without an egg diapause significantly advanced the leading edge (first quartile date) of the flight period by a mean of 2.73 days per decade ± 0.055 (s.e.m., n=19) or 5.82 ± 1.15 (s.e.m., n=19) per degree rise in temperature. Species exhibiting a diapause in the egg stage did not respond significantly to increases in UK temperatures. This study represents the first review of changes in odonate phenology in relation to climate change and shows that responses to global warming are mediated by life-history traits. The results suggest that the damped temperature oscillations experienced by aquatic organisms compared to terrestrial organisms are sufficient to evoke phenological responses similar to those of purely terrestrial taxa.

The impact of climate-induced distributional changes on the validity of biological water quality metrics

“…Most of the ca. 270,000 records are concentrated at lower latitudes and between 1980-2000 (for more details, see Hassall et al, 2007). Each species in the database was coded according to its family.…”

“…Included among these macroinvertebrates are the Odonata (the dragonflies and damselflies) which, being of tropical origin (Pritchard & Leggott, 1987), are potentially sensitive to environmental warming (e.g., Hassall et al, 2007). However, the Odonata have also been identified as being sensitive to a range of pollutants and are used as indicators of water quality both within the BMWP system and elsewhere (Clark & Samways, 1996;Foote & Hornung, 2005;Menetrey et al, 2005).…”

An overview of wetlands of Saudi Arabia: Values, threats, and perspectives

“…Importantly, the negative effects of climate change will thus merely be 'additive' to ongoing and increasing human-induced pressures. Ectotherms such as amphibians (Beebee 1995;Gibbs and Breisch 2001) and Odonata (Hassall et al 2007;Parr 2010;Dingemanse and Kalkman 2008) are closely linked to climatic factors, and their biology is driven by weather patterns (Blaustein et al 2001).…”

Biodiversität

“…B. mehr Behaarung als Schutz gegen erhöhte UV-Strahlung und Austrocknung (Beckmann et al 2012 (Crick et al 1997), oder Verhaltensmuster verändern sich generell (Schaefer et al 2007). Bei Fischen wurde eine frühere Laichzeit nachgewiesen (Wedekind und Küng 2010); verschiedene Insekten haben andere Flugperioden (Hassall et al 2007;Dell et al 2005 (Walther et al 2001a(Walther et al , 2001b(Walther et al , 2002 (Gutte et al 1987;Wittig et al 2012). Auch viele Tierarten breiten sich klimabedingt weiter aus, so etwa einige Libellenarten und Tagfalter (Trautmann et al 2012).…”