Montioring occupation trends in animal and plant species over long periods of time is a challenge. The case of a complete set of abundance data over decades of one – or even more than one – species is rarely found. In order to deviate the impact of climate change on occupancy and migration on species and ecosystems, coherent data sets are needed. They are ideally accompanied by scientists who are willing to evaluate them.
This was the case for our most recent study. Dr. Eva Katharina Engelhardt and Dr. Christian Hof collaborated with a team of scientists from the Technical University of Munich as well as with the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) so to analyse occupancy data for Bavaria of three insect taxa, dragonflies, butterflies and grasshoppers, since 1980. As a result, we know now that species who prefer warmer climate do show an overall positive trend indeed. This and much more on the complex study you can read in the respective paper here. If you’re German, you’re also welcome to visit the website of our university to get a decent overview.
