Kira Dayton, “The Relationship Between Insect Abundance and Seasonal Temperature and Weather Trends”
Mentor: Peter Dunn, Biological Sciences
Global climate change is affecting seasonal temperature and weather patterns. There is concern that these changes may be leading to declines in insect populations. One hypothesis proposes that the increase of extreme weather events such as extreme precipitation events is leading to declines of insects. Another possible cause could be an increase in wind speeds, which can decrease the capture rate of insect samplers. We used data from the UW-Milwaukee Field Station in Saukville, WI from 2000-2020, to analyze long-term patterns of weather and insect biomass. Insects were trapped using two different methods, a malaise trap and suction trap. The malaise trap is a tent-like structure that funnels aerial insects into a bottle of alcohol, while the suction trap uses an electric fan to “pull” aerial insects into a bottle of alcohol. The collected insects were then sorted by order, dried for one hour, and weighed with an electric balance. Weather data were also collected daily, including temperature, precipitation, and wind speed. We predicted that rainy days, higher wind speeds, and colder temperature events would lead to a drop in insect biomass over the long-term. We also predicted that this would have a noticeable effect on peak insect biomass, which would be lower in more recent years than in the past. We found that insect biomass decreased when there was more rain or higher wind speeds. Insect biomass was also lower when soil temperature was lower. However, there was not a significant change in peak biomass over the past twenty years, showing that insect biomass at the UW-Milwaukee Field Station has been relatively stable, despite short-term variation due to local weather.
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Hello everyone,
My name is Kira Dayton and I am a fourth-year student at UW-Milwaukee with a major in Biology. Starting in Summer 2020, my mentor and I, along with another teammate, worked on collecting insect samples as part of an ongoing study on insect biomass at the UW-Milwaukee Field Station. Over the summer, we collected samples, organized them, sorted them, and gathered data. Afterwards, we spent time analyzing and organizing the data so that we could ask questions about it. This poster is displaying 20 years of data on insect biomass, including the data that I helped collect and analyze, in relation to weather patterns and events over the years. Weather data was collected from the Field Station’s weather station.
I hope that you enjoy this poster, and appreciate any comments or questions you may have!
Thank you very much to my mentor, Peter Dunn, and to the Undergraduate Research program for helping me in this endeavor!
Sincerely,
Kira Dayton
Excellent poster layout. Clear and easy to understand research.
Thank you for your comment, Marie! I am glad that you found the research clear and understandable. Your words mean a lot!
This is an excellent poster. It’s great to see this work presented, and encouraging that you did not find any changes in insect biomass over time.
Thank you for your comment, Gretchen! I was also encouraged by the results in insect biomass, and hope that things continue to look the same. I appreciate your words greatly!
Thanks for your presentation Kira. You presented the ‘insect biomass’ as one parameter but you also mentioned ‘sorting’ the insects. Do you have any data on whether the composition of insects within this ‘biomass’ may have changed over the 20 years? Do you know if anyone else is looking at that and whether any composition changes may have ecological (food web) impacts? Good luck on the rest of your academic career and beyond!
Hello Erica! Thank you for your comment, I appreciate your thoughts and questions, as well as your good luck wishes! I think it would be interesting to look into whether the composition of insects has changed, since they were sorted into different groups based on family (for example: beetles, flies, etc.). Because different insects represent different ecological niches or food sources in an environment, I think it could certainly have implications on the food web! I believe it is certainly worth looking into, and that this data could be potentially used to do so, though I do not know of anyone currently looking into it!
Your interest and thoughts mean a lot to me!
Very clear graphics and concise explanation! This is very far from my field of study but with how well it was explained, i understood it! And it is comforting to know that there hasn’t been a significant change in the local insect population!
Thank you Jack, I appreciate hearing your thoughts! I’m glad to know that you thought my poster was well-explained despite it being far from your field of study! I’m glad the results in this research are able to provide you some hope as well.
This poster is wonderful! I often find this type of information hard to follow/understand, but you made it easy to do so for someone not very familiar with the topic. Glad that the insects are staying resilient. This was really interesting, as someone who’s never thought about a possible correlation past ‘sometimes bugs are gone in different weather’ but only in relation to like, the changing seasons and all– good work!!
Thank you so very much for your kind words, Isaac! I’m very glad to know you were able to understand this information and it’s a very high compliment to know someone unfamiliar with the topic was able to take away something from my work! I’m glad you found the content interesting.
I thought your explanation and poster gave me a very clear understanding of the research you were working on since this is outside my field of expertise. I appreciated learning more about this, thank you!
I appreciate your comment, Laura, and I am happy to hear you appreciated learning from my poster! Thank you very much for your kind words and interest.
Amazing presentation, so informative! I am very proud of you.
We are very proud of all the hard work you have done over the last four years. And how awesome your presentation was!