Caterpillars eat and poop—a lot. All that waste could be contributing to carbon emissions.
, the paper concludes that the gypsy moth caterpillar indirectly contribute carbon emissions because their nitrogen-rich waste ends up in nearby bodies of water.
“It’s a powerful study, building upon decades of that kind of work,” says Christopher Williams, a geography professor at Clark University who was not involved in this study. “It’s exciting to see one that traces new drivers of insect defoliation that are representative of disturbances expanding across our landscapes.”, gypsy moth and tent caterpillars love munching on good eats, devouring tree leaves for their carbon.
As for whether this fecal effect is a good or bad thing, “it’s sort of a bit of a bit of a mixed bag, right?,” Tanentzap says. If communities want to set out to offset the carbon production, they might turn to pesticides, for example. However, they then would have to reckon with those consequences. And if communities want to try to offset this carbon production caused by caterpillars, they would have to reckon with the consequences of using pesticides.
While the thought of another contributor to carbon emissions may seem alarming, Williams from Clark University says it doesn’t cause him immediate concern. He views this study less as another contributor to climate change and more as an example of climate change’s effects. “It’s more a response to some of the climate change that we’re seeing,” he says. “It’s allowing these insects and pests to influence ecosystems in ways that are different from the past.
Tanentzap underscores that this finding is less a clarion call for climate action, and more a reminder that everything is interconnected, no matter how disparate they may seem at first.
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