The effect of the Toarcian (Early Jurassic) Extreme Environmental Change on Insects

The increases in atmospheric concentrations of CO2 (pCO2), that are associated with climate change,
cause decreases in the nutritional value of plants to the herbivorous insects that feed upon them1, 2.
In turn, these changes in plant quality are a key determinant in the reproduction and survival of
herbivorous insects at both the individual and the population scale. By investigating past periods of
global warming with high atmospheric pCO2 over long timescales we can increase our understanding
of the nature and scale of potential future changes in insect-plant interactions.