Banking on Butterflies - Case Study

Overview

Climate change and extreme weather events are having severe impacts on the natural world. Small-bodied poikilotherms, such as insects, may be particularly negatively affected.

Increasing the heterogeneity of an area may help by providing cooler refuges during high temperatures and allowing species to select appropriate microclimatic conditions to control their body temperature. However, management solutions to achieve this have been little tested.

The Research

Working across five nature reserves, the Banking on Butterflies team experimentally established and tested butterfly banks on flat areas of nature reserves to assess their impact on local microclimate, vegetation and insect communities.

The project established 20 experimental banks and monitored their effects on temperature, vegetation and insect communities.

Key Findings

The results to date have been striking. The simple interventions created significant changes in microclimatic conditions, including providing both cooler and warmer areas.

The research found that:

• Butterflies preferentially chose shaded, cooler areas of the banks during heatwave conditions.
• Constructing the banks changed the local ground-dwelling arthropod community.
• Overall biodiversity increased across the study sites.

This is a long-term experimental project requiring support over many years to allow assessment of the long-term effectiveness of these habitat manipulations.

Research Impact

Read more on the Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs & Northants website

Manipulations have been  highlighted in the guardian as one of 25 ways to help insects:  Guardian article

Insect Ecology Group - Butterfly Banks Trumpington

Habitat flattening: the often ignored component of conservation management and restoration

Helping butterflies tackle climate change

For further information please contact Prof Ed Turner