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A call to insect scientists: Challenges and opportunities of managing insect communities under climate change

August 23, 2016

As climate change moves insect systems into uncharted territory, more knowledge about insect dynamics and the factors that drive them could enable us to better manage and conserve insect communities. Climate change may also require us revisit insect management goals and strategies and lead to a new kind of scientific engagement in management decision-making. Here we make five key points about the role of insect science in aiding and crafting management decisions, and we illustrate those points with the monarch butterfly and the Karner blue butterfly, two species undergoing considerable change and facing new management dilemmas. Insect biology has a strong history of engagement in applied problems, and as the impacts of climate change increase, a reimagined ethic of entomology in service of broader society may emerge. We hope to motivate insect biologists to contribute time and effort toward solving the challenges of climate change.

Publication Year 2016
Title A call to insect scientists: Challenges and opportunities of managing insect communities under climate change
DOI 10.1016/j.cois.2016.08.005
Authors Jessica J. Hellmann, Ralph Grundel, Chris Hoving, Gregor W. Schuurman
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Current Opinion in Insect Science
Index ID 70175982
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Great Lakes Science Center