Butterfly numbers and weather: predicting historical trends in abundance and the future effects of climate change

Summary The effect of weather on the size of British butterfly populations was studied using national weather records and the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS), a national database that has measured butterfly abundance since 1976. Strong associations between weather and population fluctuations and trends were found in 28 of 31 species studied . The main positive associations were with warm summer (especially June) temperature during the current...