Impacts of land use and climate change on natural populations: the butterfly perspective

The past century has witnessed an explosion of anthropogenic activity, resulting in land use and climate changes on a global scale. The study of butterflies provides a unique window into the biological impacts of these changes. In this chapter, we explore several case studies that demonstrate the power of butterflies, both as model organisms in theory development and as ecological sentinels in conservation practice. These studies demonstrate how research on butterfly phenology, distribution, and diversity has yielded important insights into the interacting effects of habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation on natural populations, as well as ecological and evolutionary responses to changing climatic conditions. Further, an important avenue for future research harnesses the power of whole-genome sequencing of butterfly populations to better document and help ameliorate biodiversity loss. Continued collaboration and knowledge transfer between dedicated amateurs and professional researchers, facilitated by humanity’s innate appreciation of butterflies, will be essential to our continuing efforts to stem the catastrophic loss of biodiversity that is generally associated with natural habitat modification and large-scale shifts in climatic conditions.

Throughout 2022, we summarized literature on butterfly ecology, evolution, and conservation in a book chapter, to be published in Case Studies in Eco Health (5M Books). A pdf of the chapter is available below: