Climate change and butterflies

Georg-Cantor-Gymnasium (Halle, Germany)

Theresa Petokeleit und Matthias Tannert

Team ButterflyMonitoring

IntroductionAccording to a new study about the climate change of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the rising temperatures result in heavy, radical and irreparable impacts on economy, sociology and ecology of the world. The IPCC includes 200 member countries with more than 500 experts and scientists worldwide. They confirm serious consequences for all continents:

• Many animal and plant species living in the sea, in thefresh water and in terrestrial areas have shifted their habitats.

• Many plants have changed their vegetation period.

• The interest in species survival seems to diminish in many societies.

The habitat shift of butterflies is an indicator for climate change. The species with preferences for lower temperatures are threatened, and the species that love warm weather would move to the north.

Does climate change have an influence on the population of the

butterflies in our region?

Methods

We analyzed data of the project „Butterfly Monitoring Germany“ (www.tagfalter-monitoring.de). In this project, hundreds of volunteers monitor butterflies allover Germany. They apply a common scheme and go out to count butterflies on their transects every week. This project has existed in Germany since 2005. Our data come from a transect in Halle/Saale.

Moreover, we obtained knowledge from technical literature. For example we have used a butterfly guide and the "Climatic Risk Atlas of European Butterflies“ (see Sources). Conversations with experts of the UFZ belong also to our methods.

We selected 5 butterflies which we want to consider more detailed:

1. Coenonympha pamphilus

2. Maniola jurtina

3. Pieris napi

4. Pieris rapae

5. Polyommatus icarus

We selected these species, because (1) they are common in

Germany and (2) differ in their demands to the environment.

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3

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5

Results

We analyzed the data of 5 selected butterfly species for more than seven years. The results are shown on the diagram.

The numbers of the species refer to a transect in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt. With this diagram we want to show that there are significant fluctuations in population dynamics among all 5 species.

DiscussionHowever, we cannot give general statements, because 7 years are not enough. Nevertheless there are some trends. The strongest trend can be found in the data of Polymmatus icarus, see the light blue line in the diagram. It is shown that the quantity has decreased from 2006 to 2011. After that the population seems to grow again. This picture could already be a consequence of climate change. The Polymmatus icarus is concerned in the strongest way compared to the other species, because the butterfly and the plants it needs to survive, react very sensitively to temperature changes and drought periods. This confirms the results given in the “Climatic Risk atlas of European butterflies”.

Sources

• Settele, J., Steiner, R., Reinhardt, R., Feldmann, R. Schmetterlinge „Die Tagfalter Deutschlands“. Ulmer Verlag 2009.

• Settele, J. et al. Climatic Risk Atlas of European Butterflies. PENSOFT Verlag 2010.

• ALARM Project (www.alarmproject.net)

• PRONAS Educational software (www.ufz.de/

• pronas-lernsoftware )

• www.science4you.org

• www.weheartit.com

• www.tagesschau.de