Prof Ryan Norris
Prof. Ryan Norris

Prof. Ryan Norris was featured in an Aug. 20 TVO story about how climate change affects monarch butterflies.

Rising temperatures are causing the insects to fly farther north looking for the ideal climate, but monarchs are migrating into areas where milkweed — a plant that they rely on for food and reproduction — does not grow.

Norris, a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at U of G, said climate change may shift the migratory pathway of monarch butterflies.

He said milkweed is getting harder for monarchs to find, even in its traditional growing areas, due to agricultural expansion and urban development.

Norris studies conservation and migration of butterflies and birds.