By: Elena Jo
About 3 weeks ago, I was helping my mom cook. I opened the bag to wash the perilla leaves I had bought in advance to use as a side dish, and wow! Inside was a beetle about 7cm long. It was scary. But when I thought about it again before going to bed, I realized that my childhood was full of insects. When I was young, I loved catching dragonflies with my dad. Whenever I went for a walk or went to a mountain or a large field, I would always keep my eyes open and look for a dragonfly. Even when I was playing with my friends, I would look for pill bugs, bugs that roll up into a ball when they are touched, and I would sneak them into class. I suddenly became curious about what the insects I spent my childhood with are experiencing these days due to global warming.
Mosquitoes expand into cooler regions
In the middle of summer, mosquitoes that buzz around our ears and suck our precious blood are considered our natural enemies. Now, even more people around the world will have to contend every summer.
As the earth’s climate increases, the habitat of mosquitoes are expanding. Mosquitoes that usually live in hot and humid places like africa, and some parts of asia are now found in areas such as Europe and America. The warmer weather and extreme weather events caused by global warming creates an optimal condition for mosquitoes to live, leading them to reproduce faster and spread diseases.
In these cooler regions, the increasing prevalence of mosquitoes is increasing the risk of malaria. Historically, mosquito-borne diseases like malaria have been confined in warmer, tropical regions including sub-saharan Africa, and southeast Asia. However, areas that once did not have to contend with mosquito diseases are now facing new public health challenges. According to the World Mosquito Program, Malaria cases in Europe have surged by 62% and other diseases like dengue and zika have risen by 700% in recent years. This expansion is not just a matter of mosquitos surviving in cooler climates, but also a more frequent and severe outbreaks of malaria.
Butterflies Changing life cycle
Butterflies are a lot of people's most favorite insects because of the unique patterned wings. They are signs of spring and warmer weather, bringing life to plants. I recently noticed that it’s been a while since I last saw a butterfly. Are they safe? Are the population of butterflies also decreasing due to climate change?
Migration is crucial for many butterfly species to find suitable breeding and feeding grounds. Butterflies, who were already losing their habitat due to industrial development and natural disasters such as forest fires, are now finding it more difficult to survive due to global warming.
The Painted Lady is a long-distance migrant butterfly that lives northward from North Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia into Europe and Britain each year. However the rising temperatures are affecting their migration and breeding cycles. Warmer temperatures caused The painted lady to migrate earlier in the spring, leading to mismatches with the availability of their larval food plants. This can lower their survival rates and impact population numbers.
Additionally, extreme weather events, such as heavy rains and droughts caused by climate change can significantly threaten the Painted Lady. These disasters can destroy their habitats, reduce food availability, and directly harm butterfly populations.
The life cycle of monarch butterflies is also affected by climate change. Milkweed, which is Monarch caterpillars main food source, are hard to find due to the warmer temperature these days, leading to malnutrition and lower survival rates.
Temperature also influences the butterflies’ hibernation period. The butterflies spend their winter in forests where the temperature is reasonably low so that their metabolism is not too demanding, but not so low that they freeze. Therefore, higher temperatures and extreme freezing events due to climate change threaten the monarch butterflies’ ability to survive hibernation
What should we do?
The dynamics of insect populations are exhibiting contrasting trends, with some species experiencing population surges while others are facing declines. As mentioned above, it can transmit diseases, but it is also destroying the ecosystem. A drop in pollinator populations like butterflies, lead to diminishing plant reproduction rates, negatively impacting species that rely on these plants for food and habitat.
Additionally, an overabundance of pests are going to spread various diseases and also severely damage our agriculture. We should stop with just thinking about it but actually take action to balance the population of bugs for the preservation of biodiversity and the health of ecosystems. We must act decisively to preserve these vital species and restore the amount of pests to original conditions for the well-being of future generations.
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