A new report in PNAS, says that Europe's butterflies are decaling. The study focuses on three different countries in Europe.
The three different European countries are - the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium. The report has stated that there are several different reasons why butterflies are declining across Europe. The new report also says that there are a few key reasons why butterflies are declining in Europe.
Climate change is one of the major reasons why butterflies are declining in Europe. Habitat loss and destruction is also another major reason for the decline. And, finally, chemical pollution is also a major reason for the decline in butterflies.
The study found that in the UK 8% if butterflies have now gone extinct since 1976 that means that nearly one-in-ten butterflies in the UK have gone extinct. They also found that butterflies have declined in the UK by 50% since 1976.
This is similar to what the researchers found in the Netherlands, as butterflies have also declined by 50% since the 1990's, which means that butterflies in the Netherlands are disappearing faster than the UK. But the extinction of butterflies in the Netherlands is much higher than the UK's extinction rate of butterflies, as researchers found that 20% of the Netherlands butterflies have gone extinct.
In Belgium, the extinction rate for butterflies is higher than both the UK and the Netherlands, as 29% of all of Belgium's butterflies have gone extinct. However, the overall decline of butterflies in Belgium is lower than the two other countries, as Belgium has seen a 30% overall decline in butterflies.
The study about butterflies didn't just focus on these three European countries, it also focused on the butterfly decline in Europe as a whole.
The study shows that there has been a worrying decline in grassland butterflies in Europe. They have found that grassland butterflies have declined by a massive 39% since the 1990's. They also found that the butterfly decline was worst in central and mid-western Europe, whilst the lowest decline of butterflies was in the far north of Europe and the Mediterranean.
In Europe, they have found that the reason for the decline in butterflies is similar in most European countries - habitat loss/destruction, chemical pollution and climate change were the reasons for the declines in butterflies.
If you want to see the full report, then you can go - here.
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