“That’s particularly relevant in Mediterranean systems, which are highly constrained by the amount and the timing of rainfall”, says study co-author Constantí Stefanescu, a Granollers Museum of Natural Sciences researcher associated with CREAF. The study is based on data from 25 years of butterfly monitoring and 17 years of bird monitoring in Catalonia. Based on data from 25 years of butterfly monitoring and 17 years of bird monitoring in Catalonia, the study concludes that drought has a greater effect than temperature on both bird and butterfly populations, and that the impact of temperature is only actually significant in the case of birds. However, a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports and led by researchers from the Catalan Ornithological Institute and the Granollers Museum of Natural Sciences identifies drought as the chief culprit. Until recently, all the available information seemed to point to temperature as the main cause of the phenomenon in question. That is affecting ecosystems and plant and animal life, including birds and butterflies, with species from warm climates growing in numbers and those from cold areas waning. ![]() ![]() ![]() In the Mediterranean Basin, climate change is causing progressive warming and decreased precipitation. This is reflected in data from bird and butterfly monitoring programmes that have been running in Catalonia for 17 and 25 years respectively. Drought affects bird and butterfly populations differently, with butterfly species from arid areas and bird species from humid areas undergoing the greatest declines.
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