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Climate change pushes tropical insects to their heat limit
https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-events/news/detail/news/climate-change-tropical-insects-heat-limit/03/04/2026
Up to half of the insects in the Amazon region could be exposed to life-threatening heat levels due to progressive, anthropogenic global warming. This is shown by a recent study by the universities of Würzburg and Bremen.
“Current evaluations of the heat tolerance of insects such as moths, flies, and beetles paint a differentiated – and at the same time alarming – picture,” explains study author Dr. Kim Holzmann, researcher at the Chair of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU).
According to the study, insects’ ability to tolerate high temperatures does not simply adapt to their respective environment. “While species at higher altitudes can increase their heat tolerance, at least in the short term, many lowland species largely lack this ability,” says Holzmann.
…
The prognosis for the Amazon region is particularly alarming, as Holzmann emphasizes. “If global ecosystems continue to warm unabated, expected future temperatures will lead to critical heat stress for up to half of the insect species there,” so the JMU biologist.
…
Holzmann, K.L., Schmitzer, T., Abels, A. et al. Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature. Nature (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10155-w
Up to half of the insects in the Amazon region could be exposed to life-threatening heat levels due to progressive, anthropogenic global warming. This is shown by a recent study by the universities of Würzburg and Bremen.
“Current evaluations of the heat tolerance of insects such as moths, flies, and beetles paint a differentiated – and at the same time alarming – picture,” explains study author Dr. Kim Holzmann, researcher at the Chair of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU).
According to the study, insects’ ability to tolerate high temperatures does not simply adapt to their respective environment. “While species at higher altitudes can increase their heat tolerance, at least in the short term, many lowland species largely lack this ability,” says Holzmann.
…
The prognosis for the Amazon region is particularly alarming, as Holzmann emphasizes. “If global ecosystems continue to warm unabated, expected future temperatures will lead to critical heat stress for up to half of the insect species there,” so the JMU biologist.
…