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Landscape- and local-level variables affect monarchs in Midwest grasslands

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Abstract

Context

It is estimated that over one billion milkweed stems need to be restored to sustain the eastern North American migratory population of monarch butterflies; where and in what context the stems should be placed on the landscape is key to addressing habitat deficits.

Objectives

We assessed how the amount of appropriate habitat surrounding a particular patch of monarch habitat affects monarch presence and reproduction. To ensure that habitat restoration efforts are targeted towards areas that maximize monarch population growth, it is important to understand the effects of landscape heterogeneity on monarch occurrence in habitat patches (i.e. grasslands with milkweeds) across the landscape.

Methods

Over two summers (2018–2019), we surveyed monarch adults, larvae, and eggs at sixty grassland sites in Wisconsin that varied in patch size and landscape context (proportion grassland, forest edge density, and road density). We also estimated milkweed density and floral richness to characterize local patch quality.

Results

Adult monarch abundance was highest at patches with the lowest proportion of surrounding grassland and lowest road density, and was heavily influenced by patch quality variables. Egg and larva density in a patch increased with milkweed density and floral richness within a patch. Patch size was unrelated to monarch abundance.

Conclusions

These results suggest that optimal sites for monarch habitat restoration are within landscapes which contain little habitat and that high milkweed density and floral richness and abundance should be conservation goals.

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Data availability

Data and materials available upon request or at https://doi.org/10.5066/P9BERZ62.

Code availability

Code available upon request or at https://doi.org/10.5066/P91T59BO.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Thank you to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and The Prairie Enthusiasts for permitting land surveys. We thank Andrew Strassman for providing comments on this manuscript. Claire Stevens, Veronica Weaver, Reed Junco, Patrick Kincade, Jane Blomberg, Nathan Grosse, Cassandra Skaggs, Jason Barstke, Kaitlynn Hietpas, Laura Williams, Galen Cotting, Kelsey Stalker, Amos Kaldor, Michelle Chung, Chengkai Guo, Olivia de Castro, and Kayla Foulk performed the surveys, which took place on the ancestral homelands of the Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe, Potawatomie, Dakota, and Menominee peoples. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. government. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the U.S. Geological Survey.

Funding

The research leading to these results received funding from the U. S. Geological Survey under Agency Project Number G17AC00393.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Anna Skye Bruce, Karen Oberhauser & Claudio Gratton

  2. U. S. Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, La Crosse, WI, USA

    Wayne E. Thogmartin

  3. U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, New Richmond, WI, USA

    Chris Trosen

  4. University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum, Madison, WI, USA

    Karen Oberhauser

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  1. Anna Skye Bruce
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Contributions

KO and CG contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by ASB. The first draft of the manuscript was written by ASB and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Anna Skye Bruce.

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Bruce, A.S., Thogmartin, W.E., Trosen, C. et al. Landscape- and local-level variables affect monarchs in Midwest grasslands. Landsc Ecol 37, 93–108 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01341-4

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