Assessing the vulnerability of European butterflie

Authors: Risto K Heikkinen Miska Luoto Niko Leikola Juha Pöyry Josef Settele Otakar Kudrna Mathieu Marmion Stefan Fronzek Wilfried Thuiller

Publish Date: 2009/10/13

Volume: 19, Issue: 3, Pages: 695-723

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Abstract

Vulnerability of 100 European butterfly species to climate change was assessed using 13 different criteria and data on species distributions climate land cover and topography from 1608 grid squares 30′ × 60′ in size and species characteristics increasing the susceptibility to climate change Four bioclimatic modelbased criteria were developed for each species by comparing the presentday distribution and climatic suitability of the occupied grid cells with projected distribution and suitability in the future using the HadCM3A2 climate scenario for 2051–2080 The proportions of disadvantageous land cover types bare areas water snow and ice artificial surfaces and cultivated and managed land in the occupied grid squares and their surroundings were measured to indicate the amount of unfavourable land cover and dispersal barriers for butterflies and topographical heterogeneity to indicate the availability of potential climatic refugia Vulnerability was also assessed based on species dispersal ability geographical localization and habitat specialization Northern European species appeared to be amongst the most vulnerable European butterflies However there is much speciestospecies variation and species appear to be threatened due to different combinations of critical characteristics Inclusion of additional criteria such as lifehistory species characteristics topography and land cover to complement the bioclimatic modelbased species vulnerability measures can significantly deepen the assessments of species susceptibility to climate changeZdravko Kolev helped with the assessment of butterfly species dispersal ability for S European species Different parts of this research were funded by the EC FP6 Integrated Project ALARM Settele et al 2005 GOCECT2003506675 MM was funded by the Academy of Finland project grant 116544 WT was partly funded by the EU FP6 MACIS project Kühn et al 2008 Minimisation of and Adaptation to Climate change Impacts on biodiversity contract No 044399 and EU FP6 ECOCHANGE integrated project Challenges in assessing and forecasting biodiversity and ecosystem changes in Europe M Bailey helped with correction of the English textSpearman rank correlations for the 13 vulnerability criteria four bioclimatic modelbased criteria four land coverbased criteria topographical heterogeneity of the occupied grid cells and four species characteristics potentially increasing species susceptibility used in assessing the vulnerability of 100 European butterfly species to climate change impacts

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