Ecological and Evolutionary Responses of Insects to Climate Change: A Review

Abstract

Climate change is exerting profound and complex impacts on insect ecology and evolutionary dynamics across ecosystems worldwide. Rising global temperatures, erratic precipitation patterns, increased frequency of extreme climatic events, and shifting atmospheric conditions are altering insect physiology, behaviour, population dynamics, species interactions, and geographic distributions. These changes have led to notable ecological responses, including phenological shifts, range migrations, altered trophic relationships, and community restructuring. Therefore, this review explores the evolutionary and ecological responses of insects to climate change. Insects are responding through both phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolutionary mechanisms, such as changes in thermal tolerance, development time, diapause regulation, and voltinism. While some species exhibit rapid evolutionary changes that may enhance resilience, others, particularly specialists with narrow ecological niches, are experiencing population declines and local extinctions due to physiological stress, habitat loss, and multiple interacting threats. The combination of climate change with other anthropogenic drivers such as land-use change, pesticide exposure, and invasive species introductions is amplifying these impacts, threatening insect-mediated ecosystem services such as pollination, natural pest control, and decomposition. These disruptions carry significant implications for biodiversity, food security, and ecosystem stability. Despite growing awareness, major research gaps remain, especially in underrepresented tropical regions, long-term monitoring, and the integration of ecological and evolutionary processes in predictive models. Advances in genomics, molecular tools, and remote sensing technologies provide promising opportunities to uncover mechanisms of adaptation and assess species vulnerability with greater precision. Citizen science, open-access biodiversity databases, and interdisciplinary collaborations also offer scalable solutions for data collection and conservation planning. An insect response to climate change is essential for developing effective policies and adaptive management strategies aimed at conserving insect diversity and maintaining the ecological functions they support. Urgent, multi-scale actions are needed to mitigate ongoing declines and to safeguard the critical roles insects play in sustaining natural and human-dominated systems.