Bug history could provide glimpse of warmer globe life
Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008
A scientist from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C., outlined research on the history of insects on plants Thursday night during a lecture at the University of Arkansas.
Some of his research has implications for global warming. But, first, bug history.
"How do we know what insects did to plants in the deep past ? "asked Dr. Conrad Labandeira, from the Department of Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History during his lecture in the Donald W. Reynolds Center Auditorium.
He answered this question by saying that researchers look at the fossil record of plant and insect associations over deep time.
In his research he discussed Thursday, he looked at four phases of these plant and insect associations in the paleological periods of time. He detailed the various activity over several millions of years by outlining research on such things as plant hosts and insect feeding groups, looking at the methods they used to feed - and some of the similarities between extinct species and those of later periods.
Labandeira talked about the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, an abrupt global warming event linked to an increase in carbon dioxide levels between the Paleocene and Eocene epochs in the Paleogene period about 55. 8 million years ago. There are a variety of hypotheses as to why this occurred, he said, but none are known for certain.
The crux is that his research suggests that the spike in carbon dioxide levels increased insect consumption of plants.
"There really is a quantum increase," he said.
This is likely to be the long-term effect of human activity-caused carbon dioxide increase and warming temperatures today, Labandeira said after the lecture, and that could change plant life.
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