A study just published in the scientific journal Nature Communications presents worrying results on animals’ adaptation to climate change. It concludes that while species are changing some aspects of their lives in response to global warming, they are not doing so quickly enough and do not always make the right changes.
A study with the participation of Constantí Stefanescu, researcher at CREAF and the Granollers Natural Science Museum, has revealed that the migratory painted lady butterfly makes a trip which is even more difficult than previously thought. While it was already known that the butterfly travels from Europe to Morocco, chemical analyses have shown that it can even go as far as the Sahel, in the process crossing the enormous Sahara Desert.
CREAF researchers signal climate change and changes in land use as the principal causes. The most impacted are specialized species living in very specific habitats and those producing a number of generations in a single year.
A study finds that high temperatures and low rainfall cause a timing mismatch between the flowering period of plants and the time of flight of butterflies. The moments of maximum florescence and butterfly abundance are separated by a mean time of 70 days, increasing in years with marked drought.
According to a study in which CREAF participated, the populations of birds or butterflies living in open habitats have been negatively affected by the loss of field and scrubland habitat. Conversely, species which live in forests have been favored. These variations were related with changes in the Catalonian (and Mediterranean) landscape over the last few decades.
