Climit: CLimate change impacts on Insects and their MITigation

Coordinator: Dr. Josef Settele

Participating countries: DE, UK, FR, SE

Link to Presentation

CLIMIT-CLimate change impacts on Insects and their MITigation Insects react rapidly to environmental change: for example, regional extinction rates of European butterflies have exceeded those of birds and higher plants by an order of magnitude in recent decades¹. In theory, ensembles of closely interacting species are most vulnerable to change as survival depends on the persistence of multiple group members: thus in practice, the greatest recorded declines among butterflies were by the many species that also depend on ants (myrmecophiles)². Despite visible progress regarding the conservation of myrmecophiles under current climatic conditions³ it is not clear how conservation schemes should be designed under scenarios of different futures⁴. CLIMIT aims to measure the combined impacts of human-induced changes in climate and habitat (area, isolation, patch quality) on some of Europe’s most specialised and threatened grassland insects that depend on ants (myrmecophiles) by studying their local adaptations, changing niches and different needs across a gradient of local climates from the Mediterranean (lat 42°) to the North/Baltic seas (lat 55°). Knowledge on the specific requirements of those species which show a different degree of ant-association will be disseminated to adjust habitat management to buffer impacts of environmental change. Specifically, CLIMIT addresses the following objectives:

• Quantify intra-population variation in population ecology across current European landscapes and climates
• Quantify adaptations to local communities and current environments
  
• Assess impacts of future scenarios of climate and land use change on current European races of insects and ecosystems
  
• Study the potential of myrmecophiles to evolve adaptations to new environments
  
• Test current ideas for management to conserve myrmecophiles on large-scale sites and landscapes; model potential for mitigation under global change
  
• Disseminate and exploit results, transfer knowledge and provide training
  
• Coordinate project and establish science-policy interface
  

The study species include seven social parasites of ants and three mutualistic butterflies together with the main foodplant(s), ants and parasitoids with which each directly interacts. Sampling and experimental sites cover a large spatial scale from the Mediterranean to the Baltic and a range of different habitats and management schemes. A combination of methods including empirical fieldwork, experimental lab assays and different modelling approaches will be applied to achieve the goals of the project. In this context long term monitoring data sets from different European regions and other data from previous projects will be re-analysed. Major outputs of CLIMIT will be
(i) studies on the changing niches, local adaptations, and different needs of the study species across a European climatic gradient,
(ii) models of the processes that constrain each system’s (meta-)populations,
(iii) predictions of the impacts of future scenarios of land use, climate and socioeconomic change in different regions,
(iv) new model predictions about how to mitigate the harmful impacts of multiple drivers on biodiversity,
(v) tests of management recommendations using existing large-scale habitat manipulations, and
(vi) general conclusions about the changing needs of myrmecophiles (estimated about 100.000 species globally) and non-myrmecophileous butterflies.

The main anticipated users are key policy-makers and other stakeholders, such as
(i) EC DG ENVIRONMENT,
(ii) EC DG RESEARCH,
(iii) the European Topic Centre for Biodiversity,
(iv) the European Environmental Agency (EEA),
(v) the Scientific Working Group of the Habitats Committee in which all Member States are represented,
(vi) the European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy (EPBRS),
(vii) the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK), and
(viii) NGOs. We expect them to use the results for the implementation in landscape and conservation management, for further development of research and implementation policies, and for the creation of adjusted legal frameworks.

A continual science-policy dialogue throughout the project duration will ensure a shortening of the period between publication of scientific results and their application in conservation practice. The different mechanisms that will be set-up include:
(i) an advisory board of stakeholders who will attend all meetings of CLIMIT to provide input on the evolution of the project and inform CLIMIT scientists of important developments in the policy scene;
(ii) invitation of additional stakeholders to meetings of CLIMIT as appropriate;
(iii) regular participation in science-policy meetings and workshops organized by key organisations, especially those mentioned above;
(iv) presentation of CLIMIT results in targeted workshops with these groups, where stakeholders’ knowledge needs and knowledge emerging from the project will be discussed;
(v) setting-up ad-hoc advisory groups of CLIMIT scientists to meet specific demands of policy-makers.

The results of CLIMIT will be disseminated in various ways depending on the needs of end users. The majority of deliverables will be designed as scientific papers to facilitate rapid knowledge exchange within the scientific community. Scientific results of CLIMIT will be translated to easily understandable forms (best practices, recommendations, guidelines) and published through popular science journals, newsletters and brochures. Beside the use of traditional media most CLIMIT outputs will be provided via open access. This includes the use of an online geographically referenced registration tool for the CLIMIT study systems, new open access scientific journals, and the accumulation of all relevant open access output in an online library.

Research within CLIMIT will contribute to existing and emerging European and international policies and programmes aiming at the long-term conservation of biodiversity. CLIMIT will set standards for the scientific methods and policy instruments relevant for analysing and ensuring the coherence and long-term sustainability of networks of protected areas under the pressure of climate and land-use change – and showing management options to mitigate for climate change impacts.

References
Thomas JA et al. (2004) Science 303: 1879-81.
Thomas JA et al. (2005) In: Studies in the Ecology and Conservation of Butterflies in Europe, Settele J et al., Eds. (Pensoft, Sofia), pp. 28-31
Thomas JA et al. (2009) Science 325: 80-83.
Settele J and Kühn E (2009) Science 325: 41-42.