(Press-News.org) Seven articles dealing with the conservation of monarch butterflies were published on August 5 in Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Along with this collection, there is a new paper from American Entomologist on the conservation of Karner blue butterflies (Lycaeides melissa samuelis), an endangered species with a one-inch wingspan, which are the focus of a cutting-edge recovery program in Wisconsin that has become a model for other recovery plans for imperiled species.
As AESA editor-in-chief Lawrence E. Hurd, Ph.D., said of the collection: "This group of papers is intended to give us the latest and best data available on the status of monarch populations and perhaps point the way to our best efforts to protect them."
Below you will find facts from and links to these articles.
Facts from AESA's collection on monarch butterfly conservation:
Counts of migration trends in Long Point, Lake Erie, Canada were highly variable over a 20-year period of measurement, but long-term trends show a decline in the number of monarchs.
Migrating female monarch butterflies are more likely to make it to Mexico than males, especially when these females migrate early.
Survival rates of monarchs have declined from 1997 to 2014.
The declines in overwintering numbers of eastern monarchs in Mexico stem more from reduced migratory success than from breeding declines. This signals the need for a shift in priorities for conservation of monarchs (i.e., protecting habitats along the migratory flyway).
Based on analyses of 18 years of citizen science observations, authors found that spring-migrating monarchs are being reported significantly later, by a factor of one day later every four years.
Monarch populations were measured yearly at three key points rather than just one: the beginning and end of the overwintering period based on colony sizes in Mexico, and the end of the summer-recruitment period in the Northcentral region when the population has grown to its yearly maximum size.
Milkweeds are breeding habitats for monarchs, and the declining number of eastern North American monarchs has often been attributed to declining milkweed abundance. The results of this study suggest that monarchs are not compensating for the loss of breeding habitat.
INFORMATION:
"Conserving Karner Blue Butterflies in Wisconsin: A Development of Management Techniques" - Additional funding and services have been provided by the United States Fish and Wildlife Federal Recovery Program, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Geography and Geology Department, Michigan Technological University Graduate School, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Resource Assessment Office.
"Investigating Long-Term Changes in the Spring Migration of Monarch Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) Using 18 Years of Data From Journey North, a Citizen Science Program " - Journey North is funded with support from the Annenberg Foundation.
"The Disconnect Between Summer and Winter Monarch Trends for the Eastern Migratory Population: Possible Links to Differing Drivers" - Funding for L.R. was provided by NSF (Award DBI-1147049 and DBI-1052875 to SESYNC). Funding for monitoring in Mexico during the past decade was provided by Telcel, Carlos Slim Foundation, WWF-US, and WWF-Canada.
"Long-term Trends in the Number of Monarch Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) Counted on Fall Migration at Long Point, Ontario, Canada (1995-2014)" - We acknowledge Bird Studies Canada's (BSC) migration monitoring program at LPBO, Endangered Species Recovery Fund, Environment Canada (EC), Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (OMNRF)--Species at Risk Research Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and World Wildlife Fund--Canada for supporting this research. This work was also supported by a National Science and Engineering Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship-B grant to T.L.C., and a Mitacs Accelerate grant to T.L.C., P.D.T., and BSC (D.L.).
"Immature Monarch Survival: Effects of Site Characteristics, Density, and Time" - This work was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF ESI 9731429, ESI-0104600, ISE 0917450) to KSO, two Joan DeWind Awards from the Xerces Society to K.R.N. and Michelle Prysby and NSF graduate research fellowships (00039202) to K.R.N. and C.M.S.
"Habitat Productivity and Temporal Patterns of Monarch Butterfly Egg Densities in the Eastern United States" - C.S. and K.R.N. were supported by National Science Foundation fellowships (BCS-0003920), and Monarch Larva Monitoring Project development and public engagement was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF ESI 9731429, ESI-0104600, ISE 0917450) and two Joan DeWind Awards from the Xerces Society.
"Conserving Karner Blue Butterflies in Wisconsin: A Development of Management Techniques" - Additional funding and services have been provided by the United States Fish and Wildlife Federal Recovery Program, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Geography and Geology Department, Michigan Technological University Graduate School, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Resource Assessment Office. END
Chicago, August 5, 2015 - Patients undergoing surgery for lung cancer may wait too long to receive treatment, and too many patients skip vital diagnostic steps that are needed to help determine the best possible treatment, according to study published in the August 2015 issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
Key points:
Patients who undergo surgery for lung cancer often wait too long to receive treatment, and too many patients skip vital diagnostic steps that are needed to help determine the best possible treatment;
Only 1 in 10 patients had the recommended combination ...
CAMBRIDGE, Mass--One big problem faced by electrodes in rechargeable batteries, as they go through repeated cycles of charging and discharging, is that they must expand and shrink during each cycle -- sometimes doubling in volume, and then shrinking back. This can lead to repeated shedding and reformation of its "skin" layer that consumes lithium irreversibly, degrading the battery's performance over time.
Now a team of researchers at MIT and Tsinghua University in China has found a novel way around that problem: creating an electrode made of nanoparticles with a solid ...
Many patients with bipolar disorder, a debilitating mental condition that can take a person from the sluggishness of severe depression to super-human energy levels, are often misdiagnosed as having major depressive disorder, or MDD. But now as an alternative to reliance on patient interviews, scientists are closing in on an objective test that could help clinicians distinguish between the two -- and provide better treatment. Their method appears in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.
For many reasons, bipolar disorder is commonly mistaken for MDD. One reason is that the ...
People ignore daily alcohol guidelines as they are deemed irrelevant to occasional drinkers
Findings show drinkers prefer Canadian and Australian guidelines
Research may be used to inform new policies in the future
The Government's current alcohol guidelines are unrealistic and largely ignored because they have little relevance to people's drinking habits, according to a new report by the University of Sheffield's Alcohol Research Group (SARG) in collaboration with the University of Stirling.
The study, which is the first of its kind, explored how drinkers make ...
Scientists at the University of York have shed new light on how humans process colour - revealing that we see things differently in winter compared with summer.
The researchers examined how our colour perception changes between seasons and in particular how we process the colour known as unique yellow.
Humans identify four unique hues - blue, green, yellow and red - that do not appear to contain mixtures of other colours.
Unique yellow is particularly interesting to scientists as it is stable across large populations - everyone agrees what unique yellow looks like despite ...
Study suggests planetary rings have a universal particle distribution
Study solves 'amazing' mathematical inverse cubes law of particle size distribution
In a breakthrough study, an international team of scientists, including Professor Nikolai Brilliantov from the University of Leicester, has solved an age-old scientific riddle by discovering that planetary rings, such as those orbiting Saturn, have a universally similar particle distribution.
The study, which is published in the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), also suggests ...
Large-scale anonymised datasets from mobile phones can give a better picture of society than ever before available. Mobile phone use helps us understand social networks, mobility and human behaviour. A review article recently published in EPJ Data Science highlights the main contributions in the field of mobile phone datasets analysis in the past 15 years. Vincent Blondel from the Université Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, and colleagues conclude, among other things, that predictions that the world would shrink into a small village have not completely materialised ...
Counties in the United States with more beautiful weather and scenery have lower rates of membership and affiliation with religious organizations, according to a Baylor University study.
"Beautiful weather, mountains and waterfronts can serve as conduits to the sacred, just like traditional religious congregations," said lead author Todd W. Ferguson, a doctoral candidate in sociology in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences.
But the research is not necessarily a measure of whether enjoying the great outdoors tempts people away from going to a place of worship on a lovely ...
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY'S HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS--Stories about corrupt CEOs raiding the corporate piggy bank would appear to be the best argument for shareholder protection laws known as "anti-self-dealing laws." But there's another bonus. A new study finds in countries with strong legislation to prevent fraudulent corporate behavior, banking crises have a less severe impact on firms and the economy in general.
The study, "How the stock market can play this critical role is the subject of "Spare Tire? Stock Markets, Banking Crises, and Economic Recoveries," ...
Researchers have identified a protein produced by white blood cells that puts the brakes on muscle repair after injury.
By removing the protein CD163 from mice, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine could boost muscle repair and recovery of blood flow after ischemic injury (damage caused by restriction of blood flow).
The findings point to a target for potential treatments aimed at enhancing muscle regeneration. Muscle breakdown occurs in response to injury or inactivity -- during immobilization in a cast, for example -- and in several diseases such as diabetes ...
