Climate Change Linked To Butterflies Emerging Earlier

thanks robert for this report.

Of note also is the decline in the Monarch Butterflies. They used to mass in the millions at certain places in the bay area, but have decreased significantly the last few years. My daughter and I went to see them in Bolinas a few years ago, and it was a beautiful sight. Now there are bearly enough to notice them. : (

This is from "Monarch Watch."

Conservation of monarchs will benefit pollinators and many other plants and animals.

Monarchs can serve as international and iconic representatives of all pollinators. Monarchs use resources common to a large number of pollinators, and the size of their population therefore reflects, in part, the health of the environment for pollinators in general. The security and stability of our food sources and ecosystems are dependent on healthy pollinator populations, and conserving monarchs will protect the habitats for an abundance of species.

Understanding the status of the monarch population will help us evaluate many ecological problems, including climate change.

Decreasing monarch numbers resulting from habitat loss indicates other ecological problems at local, regional and international levels. Thus, better understanding of monarch needs and factors that impact their populations can have broad environmental benefits. Because of our understanding of the climatic requirements for monarchs during their annual cycle of breeding, migrating and overwintering, changes in the timing and location of monarch life stages provide indicators of climate change. Recognizing the realities and manifestations of climate change will provide the basis for adaptive strategies designed to help maintain biodiversity and the integrity of ecosystems.

Many existing educational and conservation programs focused on monarchs are available and need additional audiences and support.

Government agencies and many non-governmental conservation and educational organizations in the United States, Mexico, and Canada are committed to supporting monarchs. Additionally, there are many opportunities for the public to engage in monarch research via several citizen science programs. All of these efforts need additional support to further engage the public, schools, nature centers, municipalities and government agencies in efforts to create habitats for monarchs.

wow. thanks for expanding the reach of this article.

you are welcome Robert : )

Nice report Robert, I can't imagine a world without butterflies, bees, and my all time favorite--dragonflies.

I keep a journal of when migratory birds return to my property and this year, tree swallows have returned two weeks earlier than usual. We had a mild winter, where as most of the Eastern states were freezing under a ton of snow.

While it may not matter to me, for some a world without caviar would also be devastating.

Delilah

Thats a great idea. I am not a birder, but I would like to try something like that. I need to learn which birds use this area. I know in the summer there are masses of little birds no bigger than a small finch--they might even be finches! We have wood peckers as well, but I dont think they migrate. I can hear them in the summertime and its a delightful sound.

Many bears in Canada have emerged from their yearly hibernation weeks earlier due to the mild winter. It has caught wildlife biologists off guard and unable to get radio transmitters on many bears they wished to "collar" to follow their habits etc. There is also less for them to forage on this early in the year! The low snow anounts will also affect streams,rivers and the fish that depend on cooler temps and more plentiful flow!

Our scientific knowledge over the years has become vast. We've come to put a lot of dependence on technology in thinking about how to solve some of our biggest problems.

But we need to think much smaller. There's signs all around that those who came before us learned to read and read well. But we've left some of that natural knowledge of those who share the planet with us behind; thinking that it's no longer applicable.

The signs are everywhere. Things are changing. Somehow we need to learn how to marry our scientific and technical knowledge with what nature has to tell us.