The large skipper butterfly might become extinct by 2050 due to climate change. (Photo : Tim Melling/UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)
Extreme droughts that are caused by climate change are now putting the lives of many butterfly species in danger and can even push them into the brink of extinction, according to a new research.
Scientists warn that some butterfly species that are more sensitive to the effects of global warming even at its lowest levels, will be soon extinct by 2050.
This new study reveals that there are six butterfly species that are discovered to be specifically sensitive to the effects of drought that could soon disappear in some regions in the United Kingdom.
These findings are based on a prior study in 1995 that examined how butterflies survived the driest summer ever recorded since 1776. Scientists say that drought events like this will become more frequent in the future with the onslaught of climate change.
According to lead author of the study, Tom Oliver from the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology, the average across the country is quite bleak, due to the climate data and rapid increase in frequency of droughts across the nation.
Oliver also adds that droughts are often occurring one in every 200 years, but climate change is transforming it to every several years by 2050.
The six species that are susceptible to the effects of climate change especially to the harmful effects of drought are the the cabbage white, the small cabbage white, the green-veined white, the speckled wood, the large skipper and the ringlet.
Researchers believe that the worst impacts caused by climate change can be lessened when there's restored connections between butterfly habitats and human activities like agriculture. This can increase the butterflies' survival by 50 percent.
Oliver says that when habitats are very much fragmented, then climate change impacts will become more severe and in places where it is not fragmented, populations might subsist.
Data from 129 habitats where 28 species dwell were monitored by the U.K. Butterfly Monitoring Scheme along with historical climate data and computer model projections of climate change were combined for this study. This new study is published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
