Long-Term Trends in Midwestern Milkweed Abundances and Their Relevance to Monarch Butterfly Declines
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A long-term plant survey from Illinois is used to evaluate whether trends in milkweed abundance have caused monarch decline and to highlight the habitat-management practices that promote milkweeds.Abstract:
Declines in monarch butterfly populations have prompted investigation into the sensitivity of their milkweed host plants to land-use change. Documented declines in milkweed abundance in croplands have spurred efforts to promote milkweeds in other habitats. Nevertheless, our current understanding of milkweed populations is poor. We used a long-term plant survey from Illinois to evaluate whether trends in milkweed abundance have caused monarch decline and to highlight the habitat-management practices that promote milkweeds. Milkweed abundance in natural areas has not declined precipitously, although when croplands are considered, changes in agricultural weed management have led to a 68% loss of milkweed available for monarchs across the region. Midsuccessional plant communities with few invasive species provide optimal milkweed habitat. The augmentation of natural areas and the management of existing grasslands, such as less frequent mowing and woodyand exotic-species control, may replace some of the milkweed that has been lost from croplands.read more
Citations
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MonographDOI
Manual of the botany of the northern United States : including Virginia, Kentucky, and all east of the Mississippi / by Asa Gray ; (the mosses and liverworts by Wm. S. Sullivant.)
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Interpreting surveys to estimate the size of the monarch butterfly population: Pitfalls and prospects.
John M. Pleasants,Myron P. Zalucki,Karen S. Oberhauser,Lincoln P. Brower,Orley R. Taylor,Wayne E. Thogmartin +5 more
TL;DR: Data is used on the historical change in the proportion of milkweeds, and thus monarch activity, in agricultural fields and non-agricultural habitats to show why using counts can produce misleading conclusions about population size and to present evidence against the hypothesis of increased mortality during migration.
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Local and cross-seasonal associations of climate and land use with abundance of monarch butterflies Danaus plexippus
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed negative binomial regression models to estimate monarch abundance during recruitment in Illinois as a function of local climate, site-specific crop cover, and county-level herbicide (glyphosate) application.
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Patterns and causes of oviposition in monarch butterflies: Implications for milkweed restoration
TL;DR: The results suggest that investing heavily in milkweed restoration in roadside habitats should be done cautiously and that a better strategy may be for managers to develop incentive programs with landowners to plant and maintain milkweeds in agricultural landscapes, which could complement other pollinator initiatives or ecosystem service programs in Agricultural landscapes that focus on increasing nectar availability.
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Multiscale seasonal factors drive the size of winter monarch colonies.
Sarah P. Saunders,Leslie Ries,Naresh Neupane,M. Isabel Ramírez,Eligio García-Serrano,Eduardo Rendón-Salinas,Elise F. Zipkin +6 more
TL;DR: A multiscale modeling approach reveals that continental-scale landscape greenness during migration and the amount of forest cover at winter sites significantly influence arrival colony sizes, and demonstrates a demographic link between summer and fine-scale winter population sizes.
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