Why are Butterflies in Europe Migrated into the Woods?

Increase in temperature forcing the butterflies in Europe fled to the woods to shelter themselves from the impacts of climate change. But the number of butterflies that move has not been enough to save the beautiful winged insect populations.

The scarce copper (Lycaena virgaureae) is one of the butterflies, researchers analyzed. (Picture from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/)

"We see a lot of butterflies began to be threatened by climate change," said Andrew Suggitt, a graduate student at the University of York in England. "The temperature becomes too hot for most of the butterflies to survive in southern Europe."

Suggitt is a researcher effect of climate change on butterflies. Together with his team, Suggitt want to know if the butterfly will move towards the warmer or cooler than their habitat. For example, the butterfly chose to move to areas with more trees than to a bright open area.

"We think the butterfly habitat choose a cooler to escape from an increasingly warmer temperatures," said Suggitt. "If they start doing it at the moment, they might be able to save themselves from the effects of climate change."

The researchers analyzed data on 36 species of butterflies collected in 1994-2009 from the monitoring program in English and Spanish. They specifically look at the number of species and individuals are choosing butterfly habitat covered and shaded habitats than open and more exposed to the sun. They compared that information with average temperatures for each season.

From the analysis, the proportion of individuals Suggitt find the butterfly in a closed habitat and shade higher in years with warmer temperatures.

In Spain, for example, about 75 percent of butterfly species (25 of 36 species) is able to take advantage of cooler areas of habitat, but only by a small fraction of individuals.

About 1.3 percent of the population of the butterfly habitat shift to a cooler part for every 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature. *** [LIVESCIENCE | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 3843]

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