As of: March 5, 2024, 3:52 p.m
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A Hauhechel Blueling sits in the grass in the Eifel National Park.
© Oliver Berg/dpa
Climate change and species extinction are considered two of the greatest crises of our time.
The data and figures from meteorologists and natural scientists are increasingly showing that one crisis depends on the other.
Stuttgart - The Baden-Württemberg winter was too warm, too sunny and often far too dry; like last year, its temperatures found a place in the meteorologists' record books.
But natural scientists are also sounding the alarm louder and louder.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, the population of insects in Baden-Württemberg in particular continues to decline sharply.
“We have never had such a slump in monitoring,” said Environment Minister Thekla Walker (Greens) on Tuesday in Stuttgart.
“The wet spring and the dry summer have basically killed off the butterflies.” The fish also suffered from water that was constantly too hot, warned Walker when presenting the annual climatic review for 2023.
Last year was the worst butterfly year since insect monitoring began in 2018, with 8,164 individuals counted across 80 species, Walker said.
In the rather wet months of March and April, the young caterpillars died because they became moldy or were unable to eat under these weather conditions.
Some populations had already been weakened by the long drought period in the summer of 2022.
During insect monitoring, butterflies and rams (moths) are recorded annually on 50 sample areas in the country.
The examinations are repeated on the same areas every four years.
In monitoring, butterflies are a so-called indicator species.
Their presence indicates the population status of similar insects, in this case pollinators.
Pollinator species are the mainstay of a healthy plant world - without them, many plants cannot reproduce.
“Climate change is happening so quickly that insects and other animals and plants can hardly adapt,” complained the German Nature Conservation Association (Nabu).
Continuous hibernation is important for insects.
“Warm phases that alternate more frequently with frost and cold cause the insects to repeatedly interrupt their hibernation and thus use up their energy reserves without being able to absorb appropriate food, such as nectar, because nothing is blooming yet.” said Nabu country chief Johannes Enssle.
Bumblebee queens were already spotted at the beginning of January, but they probably wouldn't live to see spring because they couldn't find nectar that early.
The early sprouting of early bloomers can also mean that the flowering time of the plants no longer coincides with the flight time of insects.
According to the ministry's report, apple blossom began last year twelve days earlier than the average for the reference period 1961 to 1990.
The consequences are late frost damage and loss of yield.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, the temperature increase in recent years in the southwest continued last year.
“With an average of 10.7 degrees Celsius, 2022 was another record warm year in Baden-Württemberg,” said Walker.
The value is 2.6 degrees above the temperature of the so-called international reference period from 1961 to 1990. “We have a year of extremes behind us.
It has never been so warm in Baden-Württemberg, drought and minor local floods alternated.” dpa