Global climate change is reshaping California’s flora and fauna in unexpected ways.

UC Davis Professor Arthur Shapiro has been studying California’s butterfly population since 1972. The cumulative result of his research career suggests that climate change is having a substantial impact on California butterflies. Persistent drought caused the monarch butterfly population to drop dramatically over the last few years, and then this spring, the extra rainfall and snowpack has helped create a super-bloom of flowers and butterflies.

In his 2018 Looking Backward report, he noted that 2017 "saw drops in lowland butterflies and little or no recovery from drought-year declines in the mountains."

Shapiro will talk about "Butterflies As Heralds of the Apocalypse at the Davis Science Cafe on Wednesday April 10 at G Street WunderBar starting 5:30 p.m.