Insects give Proof of Global Warming

Posted by Mike Kremer on Mar 29, 2002 at 04:59
(62.188.151.109)

So says the Institute of Geobotany, Hanover Germany.

A clear pattern of global warming is already emerging, and can be seen from the Polar wastes to the Tropical oceans.
Butterflies, birds and other highly mobile insect
species are moving to new habitats to survive. But creatures that can't move, like Corals are dying.
Since 1998 an estimated 16% of the worlds Coral reefs have died from bleaching, triggered by record sea temperatures.
Butterflies which can flit cross-country, are proving to be amongst the most sensitive indicators of Global warming. In Nortn America and Europe they have shifted their range northward by up to 200 kilometers. Plants lag behind, and larger animals are often hemmed in by cities and fencing.
Spring is arriving earlier, an almost universal phenomenon, says Gian-Reto Walther, of the Geobotany Inst:. Plants are blossoming, eggs hatching, and frogs spawning earlier. In Britain
spring butterflies are appearing 6 days earlier, which does not seem a lot until it is realised that migrating birds into Europe are arriving too late to produce offspring that are able to feed upon caterpillars, which have already got to the pupate stage. Warming has hit wilderness areas everywhere. In places the planet is blooming, with Mosses now stretching across previously bare ground in Antartica.

(more at: Nature(Vol 416 p 389)


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