By Ashley Burr

Bugs As An ‘Early Warning System’ To Protect Our Environment

Jun 14, 2018 | 4:23 PM

PRINCE GEORGE –  A UNBC professor and her graduate students are looking at the way bugs display the symptoms of human-made changes to our environment. 

Entomology and Ecology Professor Lisa Poirier says by tracking bugs throughout time, we can better understand how disturbances to our environment affect the ecosystem at large. One of her graduate students is comparing the differences between ground beetles undisturbed in the rainforest, those living in the Ancient Forest Park, and those living in clear-cut areas.

“You can think of many of these insects as essentially an early warning system, if we can pick up changes in how they are living, how they are making a living, they’re so tiny, they are so affected by everything that goes on around them,” says Lisa Poirier, Entomology and Ecology Professor.

Poirier explains that by tracking the bugs over time, they can better understand how human disturbances affect the environment long term.

As Poirier sees it, through the study of tiny beings, a larger story will be told.  

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A panel of local insect researchers, put together by UNBC Master’s student Luke Spooner, will discuss their findings at ‘An Evening of Bugs’ June 14 at the Prince George Public Library from 7-8:30 pm.