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Abstract

Given the observed and predicted increase in the frequency and intensity of many climate extremes, researchers have shown an increased interest in climate extremes and their impacts on ecosystems due to their profound effects. However, most related studies have primarily focused on droughts and summer heatwaves, and relatively little is known about the effects of other types of extremes, such as winter heatwaves, extreme wet periods, and cold waves. In our study, we identify four types of climate extremes (heatwaves, cold waves, droughts, and extreme wet periods) on the daily basis and analyze their impact on the abundance of butterfly species (n=34) at each life stage (hibernation, egg, larval, pupal, and adult) in England over a 45-year period. Our results highlight the importance of considering different types of extreme events throughout the year for ecological studies. For example, heatwaves and cold spells during the overwintering stage play inverse roles in butterfly abundance, with the former having a negative impact and the latter having a positive impact.Moreover, our findings suggest that climate extremes are the primary drivers of changes in butterfly abundance. Specifically, butterfly species in England show population crashes in the years (1976, 1980, 1993, 2000, 2007, 2012, 2015) with the most severe drought events, wet events in the non-hibernation period, and heatwave events in the hibernation period. contrast, in 1981, with severe cold wave events during the hibernation period, butterfly species experienced an explosion in population.