The DOI matches its Crossref record; 33 of the 33 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Rapid responses of British butterflies to opposing forces of climate and habitat change
Open accessAbstract
Habitat degradation and climate change are thought to be altering the distributions and abundances of animals and plants throughout the world, but their combined impacts have not been assessed for any species assemblage. Here we evaluated changes in the distribution sizes and abundances of 46 species of butterflies that approach their northern climatic range margins in Britain-where changes in climate and habitat are opposing forces. These insects might be expected to have responded positively to climate warming over the past 30 years, yet three-quarters of them declined: negative responses to habitat loss have outweighed positive responses to climate warming. Half of the species that were mobile and habitat generalists increased their distribution sites over this period (consistent with a climate explanation), whereas the other generalists and 89% of the habitat specialists declined in distribution size (consistent with habitat limitation). Changes in population abundances closely matched changes in distributions. The dual forces of habitat modification and climate change are likely to cause specialists to decline, leaving biological communities with reduced numbers of species and dominated by mobile and widespread habitat generalists.
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“While the gradual decline of rare insect species has been known for quite some time (e.g. specialized butterflies [9, 66]), our results illustrate an ongoing and rapid decline in total amount of airborne insects active in space and time.”
From More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas (2017) · cites this paper as [66]
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Cites
Poleward shifts in geographical ranges of butterfly species associated with regional warming
Parmesan, C., Ryrholm, N., Stefanescu, C., Hill, J. K., Thomas, C. D., Descimon, H., Huntley, B. J., Kaila, L., Kullberg, J., Tammaru, T., et al. (1999) · Nature · doi:10.1038/21181 · Cited by 2,280
Self-citationBiological consequences of global warming: is the signal already apparent?
Hughes, L. (2000) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/s0169-5347(99)01764-4 · Cited by 2,220
Comparing global vegetation maps with the Kappa statistic
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Thomas, C. D., Bodsworth, E. J., Wilson, R. J., Simmons, A. D., Davies, Z. G., Musche, M., & Conradt, L. (2001) · Nature · doi:10.1038/35079066 · Cited by 936
Self-citationPhenology of British butterflies and climate change
Roy, D. B., & Sparks, T. H. (2000) · Global Change Biology · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2486.2000.00322.x · Cited by 665
Self-citationInsects in a Changing Environment
Lockwood, J. A. (1996) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America · doi:10.1093/aesa/89.3.493 · Cited by 462
Dispersal and extinction in fragmented landscapes
Thomas, C. D. (2000) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2000.0978 · Cited by 407
Self-citationHuntley, B. J., Berry, P. M., Crämer, W., & McDonald, A. P. (1995) · Journal of Biogeography · doi:10.2307/2845830 · Cited by 405
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- Tolman, T. Butterflies of Britain and Europe (HarperCollins, London, 1997).
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A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems
Parmesan, C., & Yohe, G. (2003) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature01286 · Cited by 11,265
Rapid Range Shifts of Species Associated with High Levels of Climate Warming
Chen, I., Hill, J. K., Ohlemüller, R., Roy, D. B., & Thomas, C. D. (2011) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1206432 · Cited by 5,736
Self-citationBee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers
Goulson, D., Nicholls, E., Botías, C., & Rotheray, E. L. (2015) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1255957 · Cited by 4,074
“Citizen science surveys can provide a cost-effective means for large-scale population monitoring; for example, the UK butterfly monitoring scheme uses volunteers to walk regular transects using a standard methodology to count the butterflies seen, and has generated a large and long-term data set that has provided powe…”
BackgroundMore than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
Hallmann, C. A., Sorg, M., Jongejans, E., Siepel, H., Hofland, N., Schwan, H., Stenmans, W., Müller, A., Sumser, H., Hörren, T., et al. (2017) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0185809 · Cited by 3,499
“While the gradual decline of rare insect species has been known for quite some time (e.g. specialized but-terflies [9, 66]), our results illustrate an ongoing and rapid decline in total amount of airborne insects active in space and time.”
Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers
Sánchez-Bayo, F., & Wyckhuys, K. A. G. (2019) · Biological Conservation · doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2019.01.020 · Cited by 3,462
“Butterflies appear to be declining faster in the United Kingdom, as 74% of 46 non-migratory butterflies restricted their distribution over 1970–1999 (Warren et al., 2001).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Warren, M. S., Hill, J. K., Thomas, J. A., Asher, J., Fox, R., Huntley, B., Roy, D. B., Telfer, M. G., Jeffcoate, S., Harding, P., Jeffcoate, G., Willis, S. G., Greatorex-Davies, J. N., Moss, D., & Thomas, C. D.
- Affiliations
- Butterfly Conservation (GB)
- Durham University (GB)
- Dorset Green Technology Park (GB)
- UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (GB)
- University of Leeds (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Thomas, C. D.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2001-11
- Volume
- 414
- Issue
- 6859
- Pages
- 65-69
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W1620630482
- Cited by
- 1,333
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 23 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 44 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 57 · 2020: 53 · 2019: 61 · 2018: 59 · 2017: 46 · 2016: 76 · 2015: 75 · 2014: 93 · 2013: 66 · 2012: 76
- FWCI
- 33.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- orcid.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecological Modeling › Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Lepidoptera: Biology and Taxonomy
- Keywords
- butterflies, climate change, habitat loss, range shifts, species distribution, population abundance, habitat generalists, habitat specialists, global warming, habitat degradation, Great Britain
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Physiological, Animals, Butterflies, Climate, Environment, United Kingdom, Population Dynamics, Seasons, Species Specificity
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