Climate Change and Insects

Learn about the impacts of our changing climate on insect populations

Climate Change

The Earth's climate is changing now and will continue to do so.
The release of greenhouse gases by humans is the cause of climate change.
Our burning of fossil fuels is the major source of greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere.
Evidence and impacts of climate change include a recorded increase in global surface temperature over time.

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Already, insect populations have been impacted by climate change.
- Further effects are predicted for the future as temperatures rise, humidity changes, and extreme weather events become more frequent and severe.
Most insects are “cold-blooded” or ectothermic, they cannot self-regulate their own body temperature. Therefore, the temperature of the environment is a main factor in influencing insect behavior, distribution, development, and reproduction. The small size and ecothermic nature of insects makes them vulnerable to changes in humidity and temperature in our warming world.
Climate change impacts to insect populations will have consequences for humans.
- Insects are influential parts of ecosystems.
- Agriculture, forestry, and human health will be effected by changes in insect populations.
- These impacted sectors will also result in related climate justice issues.
Global warming will impact insect species greatly, with some species, including disease vectors and agricultural and forest pests, expanding or shift their ranges or changing spatiotemporal patterns as temperatures rise, resulting in shifts in pest outbreaks.
Other insect species will be vulnerable to reduced capacity to perform valuable ecosystem services, to decline, and to extinction.
Climate change is listed among the major drivers of biodiversity loss (or the decline or extinction of a variety of species of living species) Loss in biodiversity can lead to major breakdowns in ecological communities and in ecosystem services that are essential to human society.
Due to the high diversity of insect species, species have been impacted in different ways by climate change. While increased temperature and humidity changes have negatively impacted many insect species and are projected to continue to do so in the future, other species' populations will be able to increase in abundance or expand their range into warming areas.

Ecosystems

Ecosystems provide services vital for the well-being of humanity.

Climate change can harm ecosystems and the services they provide.
Climate change has already caused species extinction and more species are likely to go extinct as a result.
Currently, there is evidence of huge declines in insect populations (in terms of abundance and biodiversity). It has been called the "Insect Apocalypse" by some.
This global decline in insect populations is due to many human-caused factors including climate change, habitat loss or degradation, agricultural intensification.
Further future changes to the climate are predicted to impact insect populations greatly.

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Beneficial insect populations are predicted to continue to drastically decline due to climate change and its interactions with:

land use changes
- including habitat destruction and light pollution
global trade
- which can introduce plant and insect invasive species which can compete with the native insect species and their food sources
harsh pesticides
- including exposure to broad-spectrum insecticides and destruction of insect food and habitat resources by herbicides

Insects are a large and diverse part of many ecosystems. Loss of insects results in a loss of important ecosystem services and functions that insects provide, including:

pollination
nutrient cycling
sanitation and disease prevention through decomposition of dead animals/waste
biological control and pest management
food web resources as protein sources for many animals (including humans)

Agriculture & Forestry

In terms of human agriculture and forestry practices, important beneficial insects as well insect pests have been impacted by climate change in different ways. Projections for the future of our warming planet predict that these impacts will continue.

Beneficial insects

Beneficial insects in agriculture and forestry include pollinators, predators, and parasitoids.

insect pollinators- insects that transport pollen to aid in fertilization of the ovules in flowers
insect predators- insects that eat and kill other insects
insect parasitoids- insects that use other insects as the host for one of their life stages, killing the host.

Climate change can lead to different mismatches between insect pollinators and plants and natural enemies and their pests and plants.

Climate change can result in shifts in timing of blooms or of insect emergence and insect or plant range shifts causing pollinators to be unable to pollinate flowers because they were separated by time or space, for example. This loss of pollination services would impact ecosystems, agriculture, and forestry.
Natural enemies (predators and parasitoids) provide the important service of killing some insect agricultural and forest pests. Natural enemies can be used as biological control for help in management of some insect pest species.

Agricultural pests

In agriculture many insect crop and livestock pests are predicted to expand or shift their range or are projected to grow in population size.
Population growth rate and metabolic rate of many insect species is predicted for temperate regions, where much of the world’s grains are grown.
- Insects fed more as their metabolic rate increases, and this results in more damage to crops as insects eat more.
These factors will cause more damage to crops and crop loss in many areas.
- For example, one study predicts a 10-25% increase per degree Celsius of warming in loss of maize, rice, and wheat crops from insect damage (Deutsch et al. 2018).

Forestry pests

Some forest insect pests have been recorded expanding their range due to climate change, and more are predicted to in the future as our planet warms.
- Already, pests including the pine processionary moth (T. pityocampa), the mountain pine beetle (D. ponderosae), and the eastern spruce budworm (C. fumiferana) have expanded their ranges geographically to the north and trees in the new ranges are now being attacked by these pests, for example (Pureswaran et al. 2018).

Other forest insect pests are predicted to change in the number and timing of adult generations that can exist in one year (called voltinism) due to our warming climate, which will increase damage to trees by these insects.
- For example, the spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) historically takes 1-3 years to have one generation. Higher temperatures are predicted to enable two or more generations in one year in Canada and parts of the US. This will increase the potential for outbreaks of this pest and for it to kill trees (Bentz et al. 2010).

Human Health

Insects can be vectors of disease, carrying and transmitting disease-causing organisms to humans and other animals or plants.

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There is evidence of climate change impacting the transmission of insect vector-borne diseases including chikungunya, dengue, malaria, yellow fever, and Zika. These diseases are transmitted by mosquito species, including Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus and Anopheles species.
- Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus are predicted to spread and expand their range further due to increased habitat suitability due to climate change, as well as increased urbanization (Kraemer et al. 2019).
Insect vectors and the diseases they transmit can be influenced by temperature. Climate change can also increase the severity and frequency of flooding events, allowing for mosquito population growth.
- For example, for Ae. aegypti must be exposed to temperatures within 25-30˚ C (77-86˚ F) to transmit dengue fever (Fouque and Reeder 2019).
- For example, the reduction of malaria transmission in areas during drought in Papua New Guinea, but increased transmission of malaria at higher altitudes where there was no drought (Park et al. 2016).

U.S. map showing examples of regional infectious diseases that are sensitive to climate change based on data from recent shifts in geographic range or occurrence. Some areas will have increases in arthropod (mosquito and tick) vectors, and in other diseases and pathogens. These increases will be in geographic range and in longer seasons of spread. Figure USGCRP, 2023 and Los Alamos National Laboratory, CDC, Columbia University, University of Arizona, and University of Colorado

Insect and other arthropod vectors' range expansion will result in exposure of new human populations to diseases that their personal immune systems or that the public health systems may not be prepared to handle.
As insect-vectors of disease increase or expand their range, socioeconomics play a role in transmission, with vulnerable and low-income communities at greater risk of exposure or sensitivity to these vectors.

Solutions

There are actions we can take

There are actions people can take on an individual level through direct actions or through supporting businesses using climate-smart practices. There are also actions people can take by voting and by advocating for policies that consider climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Below are potential practices and policies that for mitigation of and adaptation to climate in specific sectors:

Ecosystems

In addition to the risks posed by climate change, there are threats to biodiversity and beneficial insect populations, including: habitat destruction, light pollution, overuse of harsh or broad-spectrum pesticides, and invasive species introduction and spread from global trade. These threats in combination with the changing climate can lead to bigger negative impacts on beneficial insects.
Reduction of all of these threats to beneficial and native insect populations would result in increased conservation of insect populations and the services they provide.

Solutions:·

Support of policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a large scale.
Support renewable energy.
Externalities should be considered in extractive product production.

Personal actions you can take include:

Reduction of your own greenhouse gas emissions whenever possible.
Reduce your outside light pollution where- and whenever possible, especially at night in warmer months. Light pollution at night can impact our very important lightning bug and moth populations. Lightning bugs or fireflies are actually beetles and their populations are in decline. They are beneficial predators.

Provide good habitat in your yard, park, community garden, etc.
- Allow (at least some) leaves to remain on the ground for insects that overwinter in leaf litter.
- Plant native wildflowers, trees, and other plants. These plants provide important habitat, flowers with nectar (food) resources, and host material for growing caterpillars to eat. Reducing your nonnative lawn and planting native wildflowers, etc. means less mowing and beautiful flowers for you and the insects to enjoy.
- Eliminate any unnecessary pesticide application, especially pesticides in your lawn and flowering areas. If these are used, try to leave some "no-spray" zones and provide these zones as refuge in areas with shrubs and/or tall grasses and wildflowers as insect habitat.
- Allow for some wildness if possible. Leave some twigs, hollow stemmed plants, and logs, etc. that provide good habitat for insects, especially as necessary overwintering habitat.

Agriculture and forestry

Diversity and adaptation of crops for climate resilience
Use of local crops and wood products where possible to our carbon footprint.
Reduce food waste
Recycle and reuse wood products
An increase in agroforestry and other perennial agriculture, which has the potential for much lower greenhouse gas emissions and better soil conservation compared to annual crop production systems.
A shift towards more ecological intensification and integrated pest management in managed agricultural and forestry systems could help us mitigate and adapt to climate change, with benefits to beneficial insects. Reduction of overuse and dependence on synthetic fertilizers where possible.
Science-based, climate-smart agroecological practices can mitigate further greenhouse gas emissions and can also provide methods of adaptation to avoid insect pest pressure, conserve water, enhance cycling of nutrients, and generally stabilize agricultural production in time (Bolster et al. 2023).

Human health

Education of health care officials of emerging diseases as insect vectors and the disease organisms they carry change in abundance and geographic range.
Education of public for prevention and knowledge of symptoms to know when to seek care.

Climate and social justice

Policies ensuring plans for mitigation and adaptation place social justice as a priority throughout planning.
Funding for equity initiatives for community empowerment and education.
Strive for elimination of systemic racism.
Support for all vulnerable communities. Equitable treatment of climate refugees.

Conservation policies with climate change in mind:

Climate-smart, nature- and science-based plans for fostering resilience in managed and unmanaged ecosystems. We will discuss this further below.
Conventional intensified agriculture to agroecology and integrated pest management (IPM).
Water stewardship for aquatic insects.
Prescribed burns and forest management practices.

In general, more scientific research, climate refuge research, and prediction modeling of climate change and insects will be helpful for adaptation planning.

In the realm of combating climate change and fostering ecological resilience, our approach encompasses a multifaceted strategy that includes the integration of nature-based solutions. These solutions involve a spectrum of impactful initiatives.

From protecting landscapes to limit deforestation and restoring ecosystems like drained peatlands for enhanced carbon sequestration, to refining agricultural practices for reduced emissions and maximal sequestration, our commitment extends to nurturing the delicate balance of our planet's ecosystems.
Recognizing the invaluable guidance from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we emphasize the need for deep emissions reductions across sectors, making nature-based solutions a pivotal complement to overarching decarbonization efforts worldwide.
While acknowledging the time-intensive nature of carbon removals in initiatives like re-wetting degraded ecosystems, recent evidence underscores the potential of well-designed nature-based solutions to significantly contribute to temperature reduction over the remainder of the century. These solutions could annually avoid or remove up to 10 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2050, with changed land management practices playing a pivotal role.
However, we remain cognizant that the efficacy of nature-based solutions relies on dismantling incentives for environmentally destructive practices, such as deforestation for agricultural expansion.
Our commitment should extend beyond rhetoric, with the understanding that while nature-based solutions hold significant mitigation potential, they must work in tandem with broader decarbonization efforts to collectively achieve the ambitious 1.5°C target.
Nature-based solutions can play a pivotal role in not only mitigating greenhouse gas emissions but also in adapting to the tangible impacts of climate change.
Recognizing the urgency of adapting to a changing climate, we emphasize the effectiveness and economic viability of initiatives aimed at protecting and restoring vital coastal ecosystems. Coastal wetlands, mangroves, seagrass, sand dunes, and coral reefs emerge as powerful tools for adaptation, playing a crucial role in stabilizing shorelines and mitigating the destructive forces of waves to reduce flooding and erosion.
These initiatives have been proven to be two to five times more cost-effective than their engineered counterparts, showcasing the practicality and efficiency of nature-based adaptation measures. The Global Commission on Adaptation reinforces this perspective, highlighting the manifold benefits of mangrove restoration. Not only does it contribute to fisheries and forestry, but it also enhances recreation opportunities while significantly reducing the risks associated with storms and inundation. Importantly, the Commission finds that the benefits derived from mangrove restoration outweigh the associated costs by a factor of 10.

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