Climate change may kill 65 per cent of insects on Earth, says a study

Insects may be a pesky nuisance most of the time but the entire Phylum Arthropoda (just a scientific term grouping the critters) are part of a delicate balance that’s life on the planet Earth. They may literally suck our blood but they also pollinate crops and help us grow food. Insects ared directly responsible for our continued presence on the blue planet.

But human-made changes like climate change are not only creating problems for us but also for insects. A new study has said that climate change may cause 65 per cent of insects that were studied to go extinct.

The study has been published in scientific journal Nature Climate Change. The study is titled “Climate-mediated shifts in temperature fluctuations promote extinction risk.”

The study said that due to climate change, 65 per cent of the 38 species of insects that were studied will face increased risk of extinction in next 50 to 100 years.

Cold blooded insects are more susceptible to ill effects of climate change as they do not have the ability to change their body temperature in accordance with changing external temperature.

US Department of Defense has supported the research.

“We needed a modeling tool to understand how insect populations will be affected by variations in temperature,” said Dr Kate Duffy, a former postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Centre.

“And that’s what we aimed to offer with this study: a more direct and accurate way for scientists to understand this dynamic,” she added.(WION)