Loss of habitat takes toll on British butterflies
Copyright 2001 Reuters
November 01, 2001
LONDON — Loss of habitat is diminishing Britain's butterfly population just as their numbers should be rising. Scientists warn that if butterflies are dying, other insects, birds, and animals are as well.
"This is certainly one of the clearest, if not the clearest, demonstration of how habitat change and climate change are likely to interact to change species distribution," said Professor Chris Thomas of Leeds University in northern England.
Climate warming — with warmer temperatures farther north — should mean there are more butterflies in Britain.
But over the last 30 years, butterfly habitats have been lost too quickly for the population to keep up, mostly due to improvements in agriculture and the replacement of wild grass and flower pastures with fields of fertilized commercial grasses.
Three-quarters of 46 species that Thomas and his colleagues observed in a study reported in the science journal Nature were declining because of the habitat changes.
Thomas, a conservation biologist, believes the situation is similar elsewhere in Europe, which could have an impact on other insects, birds, and animals. "We now think that many more species have declined in reality than people had previously thought," Thomas added.
He warned that some species could be driven to extinction. "There is absolutely no reason why the same processes shouldn't apply to a wide range of animals and plants," he explained.
"What this paper is revealing is one of our worst fears," he said. "We knew that climate change will mean species have to switch their distribution to new places. One of our great fears is that they wouldn't be able to do this. This is the first concrete evidence this may be so."