Practically all ecologists have faced some level of consternation when integrating weather and climate data into their research. This is because weather data is often taken at different scales than the population data being collected. But individual organisms (and populations of organisms) depend on both current conditions and the conditions they have been exposed to over their lifetimes. While it is certain that, for example, temperature plays a role in the number of insects we observe at a given site, what aspect of temperature is less clear: does average temperature positively affect reproductive rates? Will a brief heat wave (that increases the average temperature) increase mortality? Is the air temperature we measure at a weather station relevant to an insect that burrows into the soil when conditions become too hot? Environmental conditions are both instantaneous and cumulative processes, and it can be very difficult to identify which factors are the most important, and at which scales they’re relevant to the insects we’re trying to understand. This problem becomes doubly complex when we consider changing climates, because which aspects of the climate change vary, and may have greater or less impact depending on the insect species in question, its behavior, physiology, and interactions with the environment.
This group will bring together experts in climate modeling with people interested in developing insect ecophysiological models. This group will develop synthetic strategies for integrating weather and climate data into understanding how insects are responding to their environment, by identifying data standards, scaling approaches, and common elements between models.
Please contact Dave Wagner at david.wagner@uconn.edu if you are interested in joining this working group.