On this doggish day in late August, an Associated Press news
story today reports more evidence that global warming is even
now affecting populations of things that fly and flutter--in
this case, butterflies. Below, I'll recap the story.

But if butterflies are already showing effects, I wonder what
kinds of effects of global warming we may expect to see among
our new world birds, particularly the more specialized ones.

Does any tweeter care to indulge in wild or even informed
speculation?



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Global warming may well be redistributing populations of
Edith's Checkerspot Butterflies northward and toward higher
altitudes, says a researcher at the University of California
at Santa Barbara.

UCSB's Camille Parmesan writes in the journal _Nature_ that
of the 151 populations recorded in previous studies from
western Mexico through the western US to western Canada,
populations in Mexico are 4 times more likely to have died
out than populations in Canada. And populations recorded
above 7,900 feet have survived at a better rate than those
at lower altitudes.

Moreover, the sites of still-surviving populations are
on average 2 degrees farther north than the sites of
vanished populations.

Parmesan's article in _Nature_ has been reported today
(8/29/96) by the Associated Press.

--cheers, Jim Lyles <jrlyles at usgs.gov>
Tacoma, WA <jrlyles at eskimo.com>