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Insects do not have "room to hide" from climate change, scientists said after analyzing UK data covering a 50-year period.
The study found that forested areas, whose shade was supposed to protect species from global warming, are as impacted by climate change as open grasslands.
The research examined records of early spring flights of butterflies, moths and aphids and first eggs of birds between 1965 and 2012. With average temperatures increasing, aphids are appearing. a month earlier and birds lay a week earlier. The scientists said this could mean that the animals were becoming "out of sync" with their prey, which could have serious consequences for the ecosystems.
Researchers worry more and more dramatic declines in insect populations, which underlie much of nature. In February, it was said that these falls could lead to "a catastrophic collapse of natural ecosystems" and, in March, new evidence of widespread loss of pollinating insects in recent decades in Britain.
Other studies, conducted in Germany and Puerto Rico, have shown declining numbers over the last 25 to 35 years. Another country has shown that butterflies in the Netherlands have decreased by at least 84% over the past 130 years.
James Bell of the Rothamsted Research Institute, who led the research on woodlands, said: "In times of global warming, one could expect woodlands to provide protection from insects, a buffer against change. But we did not see that. This is the big surprise and disturbs. There is really no place to hide from the effects of global warming if you are an insect in the UK. "
Another surprise was that insects and birds living in farmland emerge later in the spring, not earlier than expected. "We can only assume that this has to do with other non-climate factors," Bell said. The loss of wilderness areas and the change in crop type could be among the factors, he said, as well as the lack of available food to delay breeding.
James Pearce-Higgins of the British Trust for Ornithology said, "Birds are at the top of many food chains and are sensitive to the effects of climate change on the availability of their insect prey."
A new separate study found that bird populations that feed on insects for food declined by 13% across Europe between 1990 and 2015 and by 28% in Denmark, what scientists used as a national case study. The omnivorous birds assessed show no decline.
British research, published in the journal Global Change Biology, revealed that the transition to anterior emergence or spawning varied considerably depending on the habitat type and distance of the species to the north. Aphids reproduce very quickly and can adapt quickly to changes in temperature. Their first flight is now on average 30 days earlier than 50 years ago. Birds, butterflies and butterflies appear one to two weeks earlier.
Bell added that calendar changes were affecting agriculture, with aphids arriving earlier and potatoes planted later due to wetter winters. This combination meant that the aphids, which transmit viruses, attacked much younger plants. "The plants look like babies, their immune system is very poorly developed. So, when a virus is transmitted to a young potato plant, it has a much bigger effect, "he said.
Jon Pickup, Scottish Government Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture, said: "As a pest, aphid migrations are occurring earlier and dramatically. This work clearly shows the British signal clearly. "
Bell added that inadequate timing also affected wildlife. "For example, the oak leafing date determines when the caterpillars will appear, as well as when the blue caterpillar-feeding tits lay their first egg," he said. "If they're out of sync, it has cascading effects on the food chain, resulting in a reduction in the number of eggs, and this has been found."
During the exceptionally hot month of February, pike nests, ladybug mating and dozens of migratory swallows along the southwestern coast were observed, all more than a month earlier than expected.
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