That’s the idea driving new research from University of Auckland scientists Dr Richard O’Rorke and Dr Aimee van der Reis.

They are leading a large team of researchers from the University of Auckland’s School of Computational Science, Centre of Machine Learning for Social Good, School of Biological Sciences, and Ngā Ara Whetū – Centre for Climate, Biodiversity and Society.

Over the next year, the scientists and collaborators across the country will ask thousands of members of the public to clean insect material off their licence plates.

This will provide insect DNA samples that can be used to map insect populations in different environments across Aotearoa.

The samples will provide the basis for AI applications that can identify patterns, predict future insect distribution and track how climate change impacts on these tiny, but ecologically significant, creatures.

The United States-based Climate Change AI Innovation Grants program has granted $US150,000 for O’Rorke and van der Reis to carry out the research.

“The idea for this project comes from something called ‘the windscreen phenomenon’, which reflects how people might notice that more bugs crashed into their windscreen 20 years ago than they do now,” says O’Rorke.

Insect studies have often relied on trapping that provides excellent data for a small area, but there is a lack of knowledge about where many thousands of insect species occur across vast areas of New Zealand.

“We lack a rough consensus on the number of insect species. To try to fill some of the knowledge gaps, we need new methods to sample insect life over broad swathes of landscape.

“This project will help record the insect biodiversity we have now, which will be important to create a baseline for measuring the impacts of climate change and other effects from human activities,” says van der Reis.

The researchers have optimised methods to inexpensively identify insects from traces of DNA that remain after they hit car license plates.

They will also gather information about traces of bacteria, fungi, and plants associated with the insects found on license plates.

A pilot project last year was a roaring success, with members of the Auckland Veteran & Vintage Car Club collecting insect DNA from their licence plates.

Now, more volunteers from schools, clubs and the wider community will be provided with DNA-sampling kits. The researchers will then extract and sequence DNA from the swabs.

To ensure wide coverage, the team is approaching businesses, research groups and local governments in major cities to provide samples from license plates from company cars and public transport vehicles.

“We want to engage people who might not necessarily be concerned with climate change, or thinking about insect diversity, and foster a sense of shared responsibility for the ecosystems we’re studying” says O’Rorke.

Insects are vital for everything from pollination of crops that humans depend on to providing a food source for native birds, fishes, lizards and bats.

However, climate change poses a particular threat to these tiny critters.

Changes to weather patterns affect insect habitats and disrupt their life cycles, with more frequent storms, new diseases and invasive species all taking a toll.

“Insects are going to be one of the most heavily influenced animals from climate change.

“We’re going to experience major redistributions of where insects are found and when – and that will have big knock-on effects.

“If insects are wiped out in some areas, entire food webs are likely to be disrupted,” says van der Reis.

One major concern is asynchrony of life cycles. Some insects rely on seasonal cues to emerge, but climate change has changed timings, so these cues can occur out of synch with their food sources.

“There might be slippage between when flowers are ready for pollination and when insect pollinators are around,” says O’Rorke.

The research aims to find out whether some landscape features help insects survive the impacts of climate change.

The scientists plan to develop a digital library to train AI models to predict species distributions, interactions, and responses to climate change.

Collaborating organisations include:

• Go Eco (Waikato Environment Centre)
• Greater Wellington Regional Council
• Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research
• New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science
• Pohe Environmental
• St Patrick’s College Wellington
• Sustainable Hawke’s Bay
• Terra Pura Consulting
• Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai
• Wilderlab NZ.