Arctic Mosquito Swarms May Threaten Caribou as the Climate Changes

First Posted: Sep 16, 2015 08:17 AM EDT

While some animals are suffering from warming temperatures, others are thriving. In particular, Arctic mosquitos are swarming as the climate changes, and are becoming so numerous that they're threatening the caribou that they feast on.

Climate change is raising temperatures globally, which greatly influences insect physiology, growth rates and survival, including their ability to elude predators. Average temperatures in the Arctic, in particular, have increased at twice the global rate in the past 100 years. In addition, the low biodiversity of Arctic ecosystems provided a simple predator-prey interaction for this study.

In this latest study, the researchers predicted the mosquitoes' probability of surviving and emerging as adults. They found that this probability will increase by more than 50 percent if Arctic temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius. This is particularly important to note since this is the schedule increase in temperature over the next several years.

More specifically, the researchers found that warmer spring temperatures will cause the mosquitos to emerge two weeks earlier, and shorten their development time through the larval and pupal stages by about 10 percent for ever degree increase in temperature. Warming also increased the number of mosquitoes being eaten by their predators, the diving beetle. However, the mosquitoes' accelerated growth lessened their time with these aquatic predators, which increased their survival to adulthood.

"Increased mosquito abundance, in addition to northward range expansions of additional pest species, will have negative consequences for the health and reproduction of caribou," said Lauren Culler, lead author of the new study, in a news release. "Warming in the Arctic can thus challenge the sustainability of wild caribou and managed reindeer in Fennoscandia (Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of northwest Russia), which are an important subsistence resource for local communities."

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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TagsClimate Change, Climate, arctic, Mosquitoes, Mosquito, global warming, Caribou, Animals, Temperatures, Temperature