Recent trends in butterfly populations from north-east Spain and Andorra in the light of habitat and climate change

Stefanescu, Constantí; Torre, Ignasi; Jubany, Jordi; Páramo, Ferran

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-1442-7_6

Cited by 8 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…In butterflies, for example, warming-related life-history changes include prolongation of the flight period, alterations of the number of generations per year and acceleration of appearance dates (Roy & Sparks, 2000;Walther et al, 2002;Altermatt, 2010). Although there is a rich bibliography studying changes in butterfly phenology, only a few articles represent Mediterranean environments (Gutiérrez & Menéndez, 1998;Wilson et al, 2007;de Arce Crespo & Gutiérrez, 2011;Stefanescu et al, 2011), and even fewer have combined analyses of changes of more than one taxonomic group (but see Gordo & Sanz, 2006). This is, however, crucial because differences in rates or directions of phenological response by different taxa could lead to asynchrony in species interactions (Memmott et al, 2007;Visser et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Who flies first? – habitat‐specific phenological shifts of butterflies and orthopterans in the light of climate change: a case study from the south‐eastMediterranean

Zografou

Adamidis

Grill

et al. 2015

Ecological Entomology

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1. Insects undergo phenological change at different rates, showing no consistent trend between habitats, time periods, species or groups. Understanding how and why this variability occurs is crucial.2. Phenological patterns of butterflies and Orthoptera were analysed using a novel approach of standardised major axis (SMA) analysis. It was investigated whether: (i) phenology (the mean date and duration of flight) of butterflies and Orthoptera changed from one survey (1998 and 1999 respectively) to another (2011), (ii) the rate at which phenology changed differed between taxa and (iii) phenological change was significantly different across habitat types (agriculture fields, grasslands, and forests). Using the 2011 dataset, we investigated relationships between habitat-specific variables and species phenology.3. For both groups, late-emerging species had an advanced onset on the second survey while the duration showed no consistent trend for butterflies and did not change for Orthoptera. Although the rate at which phenology changed was consistent between the two groups, at the habitat level, a longer duration of flight period emerged for butterflies in agriculture fields while Orthoptera showed no differentiation in flight duration between habitats. We found an earlier emergence of butterflies in grasslands compared to forests, attributed to habitat-specific temperature, whereas spatial variation in humidity had a significantly lower effect on butterflies' phenology in grasslands compared to forests. A gradual delay of butterfly appearances as the canopy cover increased was also found.4. The utility of SMA analysis was demonstrated in phenological studies and evidence was detected that both habitat type and habitat-specific variables refine species' phenological responses.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Who flies first? – habitat‐specific phenological shifts of butterflies and orthopterans in the light of climate change: a case study from the south‐eastMediterranean

Zografou

Adamidis

Grill

et al. 2015

Ecological Entomology

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“…In these insect systems and others, warmer temperatures in recent years have led to shifts in emergence dates and distribution ranges for a variety of species (Altermatt 2010a;Diamond et al 2011;Doi et al 2008;Hickling et al 2006;Hodgson et al 2010;Stefanescu et al 2011;Thomas et al 2001). Shifts in phenology may have beneficial or detrimental impacts on insect populations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Disentangling the paradox of insect phenology: are temporal trends reflecting the response to warming?

et al. 2011

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The strength and direction of phenological responses to changes in climate have been shown to vary significantly both among species and among populations of a species, with the overall patterns not fully resolved. Here, we studied the temporal and spatial variability associated with the response of several insect species to recent global warming. We use hierarchical models within a model comparison framework to analyze phenological data gathered over 40 years by the Japan Meteorological Agency on the emergence dates of 14 insect species at sites across Japan. Contrary to what has been predicted with global warming, temporal trends of annual emergence showed a later emergence day for some species and sites over time, even though temperatures are warming. However, when emergence data were analyzed as a function of temperature and precipitation, the overall response pointed out an earlier emergence day with warmer conditions. The apparent contradiction between the response to temperature and trends over time indicates that other factors, such as declining populations, may be affecting the date phenological events are being recorded. Overall, the responses by insects were weaker than those found for plants in previous work over the same time period in these ecosystems, suggesting the potential for ecological mismatches with deleterious effects for both suites of species. And although temperature may be the major driver of species phenology, we should be cautious when analyzing phenological datasets as many other factors may also be contributing to the variability in phenology.

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“…The destruction, degradation, and fragmentation of grassland habitats has triggered significant butterfly population declines and range contractions throughout Europe (Krauss et al 2010;Polus et al 2007;Stefanescu et al 2010; Thomas et al 2004) and North America (Forister et al 2010;Swengel et al 2010). In the Midwestern USA, the conversion of the native tallgrass prairie ecosystem to row crop agriculture over the past 150 years has been described as one of the most rapid and complete ecological transformations in human history (Samson and Knopf 1994;Mutel 2007;Smith 1998) and has resulted in significant declines in prairie butterfly populations (Swengel et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Butterfly response to floral resources during early establishment at a heterogeneous prairie biomass production site in Iowa, USA

2011

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In the Midwestern USA, current biofuel production systems rely on high input monoculture crops that do little to support native biodiversity. The University of Northern Iowa's Tallgrass Prairie Center is investigating the feasibility of cultivating and harvesting diverse mixes of native prairie vegetation for use as a sustainable biofuel in a manner that also conserves biodiversity and protects soil and water resources. In 2009, we established 48 research plots on three soil types at an Iowa site with a uniform history of row crop production. We seeded each plot with one of four treatments of native prairie vegetation: (1) switchgrass monoculture, (2) warm-season grass mix (5 grass species), (3) biomass mix (16 species of grasses, legumes, and forbs), or (4) prairie mix (32 species of grasses, legumes, forbs, and sedges). In 2010, we measured vegetation characteristics and studied butterfly use of the plots to investigate the hypothesis that more diverse plant communities would support a greater abundance and diversity of butterflies. Habitat characteristics varied significantly among the plots by treatment and soil type, and butterflies responded rapidly to variation in floral abundance and richness. Averaged over the entire growing season, butterflies were six times more abundant and twice as species rich in the biomass and prairie mix plots compared to the warm-season grass and switchgrass plots. Our results suggest that implementation of biomass production using diverse mixes of native prairie vegetation on marginal lands could have positive effects on the maintenance of butterfly populations in agricultural landscapes.

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Recent trends in butterfly populations from north-east Spain and Andorra in the light of habitat and climate change

Cited by 8 publications

References 31 publications

Who flies first? – habitat‐specific phenological shifts of butterflies and orthopterans in the light of climate change: a case study from the south‐eastMediterranean

Who flies first? – habitat‐specific phenological shifts of butterflies and orthopterans in the light of climate change: a case study from the south‐eastMediterranean

Disentangling the paradox of insect phenology: are temporal trends reflecting the response to warming?

Butterfly response to floral resources during early establishment at a heterogeneous prairie biomass production site in Iowa, USA

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