Global warming is causing butterflies to shrink
Butterflies in the Arctic are getting smaller as a result of rising temperatures caused by global warming. Scientists warn global warming could eventually leave the insects too small to find enough food and reproduce in their large range Biologists measured the wing length of almost 4,500 individual butterflies from two species - the Arctric fritillary and the Northern clouded yellow - collected at the Zackenberg Research Station in Northeast Greenland. As the butterflies, like the Northern clouded yellow are already living in the far north they are unable to move their range to find cooler temperatures Greenland's massive icecap has been losing 10 billion tons of ice a year as the glaciers melt into the surrounding ocean. This is seen as one of the major impacts of global warming in the region Laboratory experiments have also shown that higher temperatures in insects can result in smaller body size. As they live in the far North, it also means the insects will struggle to move their range to find cooler temperatures as global warming continues.
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