Climate change could hit male fertility as sperm can be seriously damaged by heatwaves, study claims
- Researchers have suggested heatwaves can cause long-lasting damage
- Male insects fertility decreases significantly when temperatures rise suddenly
- Change in temperatures did not impact female’s fertility, the study found
Climate change could pose a major threat to male fertility, scientists have warned, as heatwaves cause serious and long-lasting damage to sperm.
Researchers found fertility in male insects decreases significantly when temperatures rise above normal for short periods.
After exposing beetles to five-day heatwaves, with temperatures 5C to 7C higher, the amount of sperm produced was halved, while a second heatwave almost sterilised them. Females, however, were unaffected.
Britons head to Brighton beach this summer as a heatwave hit Britain, but scientists have suggested the warm weather could be bad for male fertility
The leader of the research team behind the study has suggested it could help explain why ‘biodiversity is suffering under climate change’
Research group leader Professor Matt Gage, of the University of East Anglia, said: ‘We’ve shown that sperm function is an especially sensitive trait when the environment heats up. It could provide one explanation for why biodiversity is suffering under climate change.’
The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, also show that offspring sired during heatwaves were less fertile and have lives a couple of months shorter than normal.
Kris Sales, who led the study, said: ‘Insects in nature are likely to experience multiple heatwaves, which could become a problem for population productivity if male reproduction cannot adapt or recover.’
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