Male fertility can be threatened by climate change

Researchers at the University of East Anglia (England, United Kingdom) discovered that heat waves damaged the sperm of certain insects and had a lasting effect on generations, which could explain the extinction of some species and the link that makes them disappear with climate change, reports the portal Earth.com

To reach this conclusion, these specialists conducted experiments on Coleoptera 'Tribolium castaneum & # 39; . For five days, the scientists alternated with these specimens normal conditions and temperatures above the norm between 5 ° C and 7 ° C.

After the first wave of heat, number of descendants that males could produce . it reduced by half while the second wave almost sterilized the male population.

In addition, his sperm production was reduced by 75% and the tendency to radically couple effects inherited from subsequent generations.

"It is thought that beetles constitute a quarter of the biodiversity " of the Earth, so "these results are very important It is important to understand how species react to climate change," explained the # 39, principal author of the book, Kirs Sales.

"Research has also shown that thermal shocks can even damage male reproduction in warm-blooded animals and previous work has shown that this leads to infertility in mammals," he said. this expert.