MELBOURNE, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A global study has documented range shifts in about one in 10 known butterfly species, with climate change and extreme weather linked to range shifts in nearly 80 percent of species with available threat data.
The study, led by Australia's Monash University and published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, analyzed 6,182 records of butterfly range shifts covering 1,758 species worldwide, according to a university statement released on Thursday.
Lead author Shawan Chowdhury, head of the Global Change Ecology Lab at Monash University, said butterfly species were shifting their ranges on every continent where they occur, with climate change emerging as "a dominant force reshaping where species can survive."
"Butterflies are early warning indicators and are signaling a warning across the entire planet. If their ranges shift this dramatically, it signals profound changes across ecosystems," Chowdhury said.
Researchers found that 80 percent of butterfly species in the dataset expanded their ranges, often moving into newly suitable areas as temperatures rose. Meanwhile, 27 percent experienced range contractions and 22 percent shifted to different elevations.
Chowdhury said tropical butterflies already live close to their upper thermal limits and that even small increases in temperature could push them beyond their limits, especially where land-use change has fragmented habitats.
The study identified major gaps in biodiversity monitoring, particularly in Central Africa, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and the Amazon Basin, despite those regions being global biodiversity hotspots.
Chowdhury called for coordinated global monitoring, particularly in the tropics, to better track species movements and support efforts to meet the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets. ■