This blog post is a press release from the authors of the Journal of Animal Ecology paper “Resource specialists lead local insect community turnover associated with temperature – analysis of an 18-year full-seasonal record of moths and beetles” by Thomsen et al. Press release issued by University of Copenhagen

A volunteer registration of insects for 18 consecutive years on the Copenhagen roof of the Natural History Museum of Denmark has revealed local insect community turnover due to climate change. The research suggests a pattern of specialised species being more sensitive to climate change.1543 different species of moths and beetles and more than 250,000 individuals have been registered on a single urban rooftop in Copenhagen over 18 years of monitoring. That corresponds to 42 % of all the species of moths in Denmark and 12 % of the beetles. More interestingly, the insect community has changed significantly during that period. The results are published in the Journal of Animal Ecology led by researchers from the Center for Geogenetics and the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen.

“As temperature increases we see a corresponding change in the insect community, specifically for the resource specialists – the insects that feed on only one species of plant. Earlier studies have confirmed that specialist species also respond rapidly to destruction of their habitats, so we are dealing with a very sensitive group of animals” says one of the lead authors postdoc Philip Francis Thomsen from the Center for Geogenetics. Continue reading “Bugs collected on rooftop for 18 years reveal climate change effects”

For those readers who have met me, it will come as no surprise that I was a bit of a geek when I was doing my undergraduate studies.  And that was long before geek was in any way sexy.  Sheldon (from ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and not @ben_sheldon_EGI) probably hadn’t been born.  However, one day one of the cool gang of undergraduates did talk to me.  She wondered whether she could use my results from a practical she had been ‘unable’ to attend.  I wanted to help but I was also concerned she’d copy my data and I’d end up being the one hauled over the coals for plagiarism.  So I came up with a cunning plan.  I wrote some code on the VAX (look it up online if you’re under 45) that took my data and generated a pseudo random dataset with many of the same statistical properties as the dataset I had collected.  It took me most of the night.  Nicole seemed happy, but not sufficiently so to come for a drink with me. Continue reading “Chi square I’ve met you before. A belated Valentine’s blog”