Global warming, urbanization and environmental degradation are rapidly changing the habitats of many butterflies that are at risk of extinction.
- If butterflies disappear, we will lose the ecosystem services they provide, such as pollination, says Mariana Braga:
- But this is also an ethical issue - we are causing these changes and we must try to preserve the butterflies. But the lack of knowledge makes conservation efforts difficult.
Almost all butterfly species in the world are found in the tropics and we know very little about them.
- There is an almost unknown world to discover, says Mariana Braga.
At the turn of the year, she will become an assistant professor at SLU. It was recently announced that she has been awarded two major research grants, one Swedish and one European, for two extensive projects worth 17 million kronors each. The money will be used to research butterflies and the host plants they need.
- These are the plants that caterpillars live on. They eat the leaves of the host plant until they turn into pupae. We believe that some butterflies are very picky and require certain types of host plants to lay eggs. Without the right plant, there will be no caterpillars, says Mariana Braga.
Picky insects
Tropical butterflies are generally believed to be more specific about what they consider suitable as a host plant. This may also make the butterfly species more vulnerable when the environments they live in change. But this is just one assumption the researchers are making as the collective knowledge of tropical butterflies is still limited.
Mariana Braga's work starts in front of her computer. She collects data on the different butterfly species and what is known about their choice of host plants. Then she compares it with closely related species and lets the data do the work. This gives predictions about which plants the butterflies might like, but then it has to be tested against reality - in Brazil.
- We will observe butterflies in the rainforest, collect them and host plants and take them to a lab. There we will see if the predictions are correct. Which butterflies can feed on which plants?
With the answer, Mariana Braga hopes to remove a blank spot on the knowledge map and help those working to conserve butterflies have a better chance of success.
In her second project, Mariana Braga will work with so-called data-driven life science. This means that she uses data to try to understand nature better. In this case, it's about developing methods and techniques that can be used by more people. But also to predict where butterflies will be in the future.
- As the climate warms, we believe that butterflies and host plants will appear in new places. Or will the butterflies be forced to find new host plants, or disappear? We try to predict this, says Mariana Braga.
