Sunday, April 27, 2025

‘Rising carbon dioxide levels threaten monarch butterflies’

Date:

Share post:

Mounting levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide pose a previously unrecognised threat to monarch butterflies, by reducing the medicinal properties of milkweed plants that protect the iconic insects from disease, a study has found.
Milkweed leaves contain bitter toxins that help monarchs ward off predators and parasites, and the plant is the sole food of monarch caterpillars.
Researchers at the University of Michigan in the US grew four milkweed species with varying levels of those protective compounds, which are called cardenolides.
Half the plants were grown under normal carbon dioxide (CO2)levels, and half of them were bathed, from dawn to dusk, in nearly twice that amount. Then the plants were fed to hundreds of monarch caterpillars.
The study showed that the most protective of the four milkweed species lost its medicinal properties when grown under elevated CO2, resulting in a steep decline in the monarch’s ability to tolerate a common parasite, as well as a lifespan reduction of one week.
The researchers looked solely at how elevated carbon dioxide levels alter plant chemistry and how those changes, in turn, affect interactions between monarchs and their parasites.
It did not examine the climate-altering effects of the heat-trapping gas emitted when fossil fuels are burned. (PTI)

Related articles

State Convention Centre, Shillong-o Rozgar Mela-ko ong·ata

SHILLONG: Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Textiles, Shri Pabitra Margherita, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax,...

Meghalaya Chief Minister Vatican-o Pope Francis-ko gopao dongpaa

SHILLONG: Meghalaya a·dokni Chief Minister, Conrad K. Sangma Sonibar salo Vatican songjinmao Pope Francis-ko gopao dongangpaaha. St Peter's Sqaure-o...

NEHU-o professor-ko dokani gimin AUSU rakgen jegalata

SHILLONG: NEHU-ni faculty member Hindi department-oni Dr. Alok Kumar Singh-ko uni an·tangni office chamber-o kragija dokako, Assam University...

Houses razed, scores detained in massive crackdown in J&K

Srinagar, April 26: Authorities in Kashmir have launched a massive crackdown on terrorists and their sympathisers in the...