A question of height

What Europe can learn from the successful reintroduction of a once extinct butterfly in Britain

		IMAGE: This is a photo of a Large Blue butterfly (Maculinea arion). Click here for more information.

Halle (Saale)/ Washington: Intelligent countryside management could improve the survival chances of animal and plant species threatened by climate change. The creation of small heat-shielded habitats and better links between habitats would counteract a moderate temperature increase and give threatened species more time to adapt better and/or to migrate to cooler regions. This is the conclusion drawn by scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) from a British study on saving the Large Blue butterfly (Maculinea arion). This butterfly became extinct in Britain in 1979 and was reintroduced there 25 years ago. Since then, the butterfly's reintroduction is seen as a model for the conservation of endangered insects. A form of countryside management that creates cooler microclimatic conditions, for example through taller grass in today's meadows, should mitigate the effects of global warming in the short and medium term, say the researchers, writing in the current issue of Science. This is, however, not a long-term solution – just a stop-gap for the next few decades.