INSECT POPULATION
GROWTH LIKELY ACCELERATED
BY WARMER CLIMATE
Insects have proven
to be highly
adaptable organisms, able through evolution to cope with a variety of
environmental changes, including relatively recent changes in the
world's
climate. But like something out of a scary Halloween tale, new It appears that
insect species
that adapt to warmer climates also will increase their maximum rates of
population growth, which UW researchers say is likely to have
widespread
affects on agriculture, public health and conservation. Many studies have
shown that
insects readily adapt to the temperature of their environment. For
example,
those living in deserts easily tolerate high temperatures but are much
less
tolerant of cold temperatures than insects living in mountains. Now UW
biology
researchers have found that insect species that have adapted to warmer
environments also have faster population growth rates. The research
shows, in
effect, that "warmer is better" for insects, said Melanie Frazier, a
UW biology doctoral student. "Enhanced population
growth
rates for butterflies might be a good thing, but enhanced growth rates
for
mosquito populations is much more dubious," said Frazier, who is lead
author of the new research, published in the October edition of the
journal The American Naturalist. Co-authors are
Raymond Huey, a UW
biology professor, and David Berrigan, a former UW biology researcher
now with
the National Cancer Institute. The findings suggest
that
evolutionary adaptation to climate warming will have profound
ecological
effects because rates of population growth eventually will alter entire
ecosystems, Frazier said. In addition, key ecosystem characteristics
such as
species diversity and food webs are very sensitive to the population
growth
rates of the species living and interacting in those ecosystems. She noted that
biochemical
adaptation to warmer temperature is not the only possible insect
response to
climate warming. Some species might evade warmer temperatures by moving
to
cooler habitats, or they might alter their seasonal activity patterns.
Others
might not be able to adapt adequately and could become extinct. But
those that
do adapt should have elevated rates of population growth. "No matter which
scenario
plays out for a given species, local ecosystems will be profoundly
altered," Frazier said. ##
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