A new study suggests global warming could bring a boom in bug populations. Rebecca Williams reports that could mean bumper crops of pests:
Transcript
A new study suggests global warming could bring a boom in bug populations. Rebecca Williams reports that could mean bumper crops of pests:
Researchers studied 65 species of insects. They found that insects that are able to adapt to a warming climate will be able to reproduce a lot more quickly.
Melanie Frazier is the lead author of the study, published in the journal American Naturalist. Frazier says in the future, there could be more crop pests and other problems.
“There might also be human health consequences – a lot of bugs are disease carriers, like mosquitoes for instance. And if those populations are growing at a faster rate we might have more difficulty dealing with those.”
Frazier says at this point they can’t predict which species might experience population booms. And she says not all species would do well in a warmer world. Some species might migrate to cooler places, and others might go extinct.
For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.