Butterflies are on the move as the planet warms: new research

One in ten butterfly species has already shifted its range in response to climate change and habitat loss, according to a sweeping global study covered in The Conversation. The research analyzed reports from five hundred sixty-five studies spanning one thousand seven hundred fifty-eight species across one hundred five countries. Eighty percent of those butterflies expanded their range — some moving east to west or north to south, while others shifted up or down mountain slopes. But climate change is only part of what's driving the relocations. Agriculture, forestry, and urban sprawl are also destroying the host plants caterpillars depend on and fragmenting habitats that sustain populations. The painted lady butterfly in Mexico, for instance, shifted upslope at eighty-three meters per year between nineteen eighty-eight and twenty eleven; the queen butterfly moved downslope at thirty-two meters per year. The real challenge: protected areas were mapped based on where species lived in the past, not where they're heading. Without protecting the corridors and new habitats butterflies will need, we risk preserving yesterday's nature while tomorrow's butterflies have nowhere to go.

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