مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري

Abstract :

Today, one of the most important ecological issues of mankind is “Global Warming”. It is unavoidable that global warming will affect the insects besides all living creatures on the world. Insects are the biggest living group of the world with over 1 million species. Insects have many detrimental and beneficial effects on humans and ecosystems, directly or indirectly. It is expected that the changes in temperature, humidity and CO2, as a result of global warming will also affect the insects. Insects are cold-blooded organisms and the temperatures of their body are approximately at the same temperature as their environment. Therefore, the changes in humidity, CO2 and especially in temperature may influence the insect behaviour, distribution, development and reproduction. Generally, it is expected that the changes caused by global warming seem to favour insects. As the temperature increase, the development of insects may accelerate and the number of generation in a year may increase, their geographic range may extend, the number of insects surviving at the end of winter may increase because of warm winter, and consequently the insect populations may increase. This situation may provoke the problems caused by insects in agriculture. Also, the population of the insects feeding on human and diseases transmitted by insects may be enhanced. On the other hand, it is expected that the factors like heavy rains and drought as a result of global warming may affect the insects negatively.