Butterflies Through Time: Climate Change, Conservation & Historic Specimens with The Biological Recording Company

Matthew Hayes discusses how historical specimens and modern-day research allow wildlife of the past to inform conservation of the future.

Combining historical specimens and modern-day research allows wildlife of the past to inform conservation of the future. In this talk, Matt Hayes will discuss research currently being carried out on Wildlife Trust reserves in the UK, monitoring the impact of climate change, investigating if artificial butterfly banks can help protect species from extreme weather events. He will then discuss another area of his research, looking at historical butterfly specimens from the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge, which can extend records of change 200 years back in time.

Matt Hayes is a Zoology PhD student interested in how we can manage nature reserves to protect invertebrates from climate change. His PhD project is made possible by a longstanding partnership between the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, and the Insect Ecology Group at the University of Cambridge.

entoLIVE is delivered by the Biological Recording Company, British Entomological & Natural History Society, Royal Entomological Society and Amateur Entomologists’ Society, with support from Buglife and the Field Studies Council.