Hayes Matthew P, Ashe-Jepson Esme, Hitchcock Gwen E, Clark Ryan, Hellon Josh, Knock Richard I, Bladon Andrew J, Turner Edgar C
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 3EJ UK.
Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire, UK.
J Insect Conserv. 2024;28(5):923-933. doi: 10.1007/s10841-024-00556-5. Epub 2024 Feb 5.
Climate change is set to become one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss worldwide, with extreme weather events projected to increase in frequency. Ectothermic animals such as insects are at particular risk, especially when they are isolated and unable to move through the landscape to track suitable climate. To protect such taxa, it is important to understand how they are impacted by extreme weather events and whether management could provide effective microclimate refuges. However, potential management interventions remain untested for many species. Here, we show that the extreme high temperatures experienced in the UK on 19th July 2022 resulted in a community of butterflies becoming inactive, but that shaded areas, including artificial slopes created as part of conservation management for climate change, provided a refuge during this period. Our results indicate that future high temperatures could force butterflies to shelter in the shade, potentially being unable to fly, feed or mate during these periods, with possible long-term impacts, particularly if multiple consecutive high temperature days are experienced.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10841-024-00556-5.
气候变化将成为全球生物多样性丧失的主要原因之一，预计极端天气事件的频率会增加。像昆虫这样的变温动物面临特别的风险，尤其是当它们孤立无援且无法穿越景观去寻找适宜气候时。为了保护此类生物分类单元，了解它们如何受到极端天气事件的影响以及管理措施是否能提供有效的微气候避难所很重要。然而，许多物种的潜在管理干预措施仍未得到测试。在此，我们表明，2022年7月19日英国经历的极端高温导致一群蝴蝶变得不活跃，但包括作为气候变化保护管理一部分而建造的人工斜坡在内的阴凉区域在此期间提供了避难所。我们的结果表明，未来的高温可能会迫使蝴蝶躲在阴凉处，在此期间可能无法飞行、觅食或交配，这可能会产生长期影响，尤其是如果连续经历多个高温日的话。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s10841-024-00556-5获取的补充材料。
