A connection has been established between climate change and the emergence of the brown butterfly, suggesting that increasing temperatures are affecting biodiversity.

If anyone needed further proof before believing that the effects of climate change are real and that we, as a generation, are responsible for them, then this new research may help.

Australian scientists found that with each decade, the butterflies emerged 1.6 days earlier and Melbourne heated by 0.14 degrees C.

Butterflies are emerging in spring over ten days earlier than they did 65 years ago, a change that has been linked to human-induced climate change.

Dr Pam Berry, senior research fellow for the biodiversity group at the Oxford University Environmental Change Institute, said that although the study may have presented new and improved research methods, the general consensus that global warming is impacting biological systems.

The scientists also claim that the use of computer modelling in conjunction with lab work may "provide a new means of linking different life cycle event timings with global warming".