Potential decline in the distribution and food provisioning services of the mopane worm (Gonimbrasia belina) in southern Africa.

ABSTRACT: The mopane worm (Gonimbrasia belina) is an edible insect distributed across southern Africa. As a culturally important source of food, the mopane worm provides nutrition, livelihoods and improves wellbeing for rural communities across its range. However, this is strong evidence that insect populations are declining worldwide, and climate change is likely to cause many insect species to shift in their distributions. For these reasons, we aimed to model how the ecosystem service benefits of the mopane worm are likely to change in the coming decades. We modelled the distribution of the mopane worm under two contrasting climate change scenarios (RCPs 4.5 and 8.5). Moreover, given that the mopane worm shows strong interactions with other species, particularly trees, we incorporated bioti

SUBMITTER: Shen DY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7615040 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature