Tag Archives: butterflies

Sierra butterflies hit by global warming, habitat destruction

A changing climate has hurt butterfly species in the Sierra Nevada, reducing species richness by about fifty percent in the last 35 years. so reports a team at UCDAvis led by Arthur Shapiro, and reported in the PNAS: Compounded effects of climate change and habitat alteration shift patterns of butterfly diversity — PNAS Here we present 35Continue reading “Sierra butterflies hit by global warming, habitat destruction”

Tracking the Biological Signal: Dr. Camille Parmesan

In the early l990’s, Camille Parmesan began studying an obscure butterfly named Edith’s checkerspot. Suspecting that it was responding to higher temperatures in California by shifting its range northward, Parmesan applied to NASA for a grant to study the butterfly’s response to global warming. "So I devised a project to look for response to globalContinue reading “Tracking the Biological Signal: Dr. Camille Parmesan”