Insects and recent climate change

Abstract

Insects have diversified through more than 450 million y of Earth’s changeable climate, yet rapidly shifting patterns of temperature and precipitation now pose novel challenges as they combine with decades of other anthropogenic stressors including the conversion and degradation of land. Here, we consider how insects are responding to recent climate change while summarizing the literature on long-term monitoring of insect populations in the context of climatic fluctuations. Results to date suggest that climate change impacts on insects have the potential to be considerable, even when compared with changes in land use. The importance of climate is illustrated with a case study from the butterflies of Northern California, where we find that population declines have been severe in high-elevation areas removed from the most immediate effects of habitat loss. These results shed light on the complexity of montane-adapted insects responding to changing abiotic conditions. We also consider methodological issues that would improve syntheses of results across long-term insect datasets and highlight directions for future empirical work.

Nonlinear trends in abundance and diversity and complex responses to climate change in Arctic arthropods

“…These and other shortfalls have strengthened calls for more standardized long-term biological monitoring (8)(9)(10)(11), especially from areas with reduced levels of direct human impacts (12)(13)(14). Previous work on arthropod communities points toward habitat fragmentation, habitat degradation and loss, and land-use intensification as primary drivers of species declines over the last decades (2), although climate changes will likely increase in importance (14)(15)(16). Teasing apart the effects of land-use change, climate change, biotic factors, and other stressors, however, remains a major challenge (14).…”

The effect of resource depletion on the thermal response of mosquito population fitness

“…Studies on the effects of climatic change on resource availability have recently shown how warming could lead to the collapse of consumer populations due to increased phenological asynchrony with resource populations (Simmonds et al 2020). However, while climatic warming is identified as the most important threat to insect populations (Halsch et al 2021), very few field studies have considered how it may indirectly affect food availability.…”

Editorial: Amaranthus: Naturally Stress-Resistant Resources for Improved Agriculture and Human Health

“…Current crop production patterns are not guaranteed given climate change predictions (Lobell et al, 2008;Wheeler and von Braun, 2013), mounting pressures to reduce environmental impacts of agriculture on soil health and water resources (Foley et al, 2005;FAO and ITPS, 2015), and other stressors that impact agricultural productivity (Borrell et al, 2020;Halsch et al, 2021). To keep pace with these pressures while maintaining yields, modern cultivars require continual development using genetic resources that must be conserved, evaluated for utility, and ultimately made accessible to breeders and farmers (Gepts, 2006).…”