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Department of BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

thelena                                        Linda Beaumont

Plant-Insect Interactions and Climate Change Ecology Lab,
Macquarie University
PhD Student
Supervisor: Dr Lesley Hughes

 

 PhD:  The Responses of Australian Butterflies to Climate Change

    Over the last two decades we have amassed a considerable body of data detailing the direct and indirect effects of global climate change on organisms.  Literature from the Northern Hemisphere has identified a variety of ways in which species have already responded to global warming.  For insects this includes changes in: species' distributions, voltanism, consumption rates, developmental rates, phenology, and morphology.  Unfortunately, few studies have assessed the impact and magnitude of climate change on Australia's unique fauna and flora.

    My Ph.D. will focus on detecting the responses of Australian butterflies to climate change.
 

sempronius        Why study butterflies?

        - Butterflies, being ectotherms, respond
        rapidly to changes in temperature and
        precipitation.
        -  Good records of species' distributions
        exist.
        - Evidence from the Northern Hemisphere
        indicates that some butterfly species have
        already responded to climate change.
 
 

              (Polyura sempronius) Photo by  L. Hunt

   My studies fall into three categories:  detecting changes that have already occurred, identifying species that may be useful indicators of climate change, and refining computer simulations to predict future shifts in species distributions in response to climate change.
 

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          Copyright.  L. Beaumont 2001