Climate change affects insects in Borneo

YORK, England, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A British survey indicates climate change is affecting tropical insects on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, the third largest island in the world.

University of York researchers repeated a 1965 survey of species of moths living on the mountain and discovered they have moved uphill by about 220 feet during the intervening years to cope with changes in climate.

I-Ching Chen, first author of the study, said the findings represent the first demonstration that climate change is affecting the distributions of tropical insects -- the most numerous group of animals on Earth -- and thus represents a major threat to global biodiversity.

"Large numbers of species are completely confined to tropical mountains, such as Mount Kinabalu (and) many of the species found by the expeditions have never been found anywhere else on Earth," said Professor Chris Thomas, who led the study. "As these species get pushed uphill towards cooler conditions, the amount of land that is available to them gets smaller and smaller. And because most of the top of the mountain is bare rock, they may not be able to find suitable habitats, even if the temperature is right. Some of the species are likely to die out."

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.