How is climate change reshaping insect biodiversity?

There is emerging evidence that climate change is already having a profound effect on insect biodiversity, with changes in temperature and rainfall patterns being implicated in recent insect declines. However, existing studies have been biased towards certain well-studied groups of insects and towards northern temperate regions of the world, while clades and regions of exceptionally high diversity have been neglected. The idea behind this proposed PhD project is to leverage newly emerging global databases that describe insect biodiversity through space and time, to understand the impact that climate change has had on insect biodiversity to date, and to predict what the future may hold under accelerating climate change. Using global, multi-taxon databases will allow us to explore which insect groups and regions of the world are at greatest risk. The project will give you the opportunity to gain expertise in the latest statistical modelling of biodiversity, and to develop model-based projections of expected future insect biodiversity trends.