Climate Change & Insects

The effects of anthropogenic climate change are now being felt in all terrestrial ecosystems. The group aims to provide a forum for the discussion of studies into the impacts of this phenomenon on all aspects of insect biology and ecology. Import issues include the creation of conditions that may lead to the ingress of invasive species, changes in insect distributions and loss of habitat. Changes in phenologies may have widespread impacts as a given insect’s occurrence becomes asynchronous with host plant or breeding site. Similarly, crop pests and the complex of parasitoids, predators and pathogens that regulate their populations may increasingly fail to co-occur, leading to perturbations in biological control. For some species, as the planet warms there will be simply nowhere to go and extinction beckons. The group welcomes contributions on all aspects of the problem, from insect conservation to pest control, and held its first meeting at the Central Science Laboratory in the autumn of 2008.

Convenors:

Dr Howard Bell,
Food & Environment Research Agency
Sand Hutton,
York
YO41 1LZ
Email: howard.bell@fera.gsi.gov.uk [2]

Dr Richard Harrington
Rothamsted Research,
Harpenden
Hertfordshire
AL5 2JQ
Email: richard.harrington@bbsrc.ac.uk [3]