The collapse of marsh fritillary ( Euphydryas aurinia ) populations associated with declining host plant abundance

Brunbjerg, Ane Kirstine; Høye, Toke T.; Eskildsen, Anne; Nygaard, Bettina; Damgaard, Christian; Ejrnæs, Rasmus

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2017.05.015

Cited by 22 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Dramatic population fluctuations and declines are common in temperate butterflies, and may often relate to fluctuations in host plant availability (Curtis et al 2015). For example, the decline of the related Marsh fritillary ( Euphydryas auridia ) in Denmark has been linked to reduced host‐plant availability (Brunbjerg et al 2017), and the M. cinxia metapopulation on the Isle of Wight seems to decline when cold summers reduce the availability of P. lanceolata in suitable condition (Curtis et al 2014). Compared to the extensive literature on butterfly populations, less is known about the effect of climatic patterns on the metapopulation dynamics of parasitoids and fungal pathogens.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host‐plant availability drives the spatiotemporal dynamics of interacting metapopulations across a fragmented landscape

Opedal

Ovaskainen

Saastamoinen

et al. 2020

Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host‐plant availability drives the spatiotemporal dynamics of interacting metapopulations across a fragmented landscape

Opedal

Ovaskainen

Saastamoinen

et al. 2020

Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The current landscape in Europe is mainly a result of recent changes in farm management (Henle et al 2008). This affected the composition of the flora and fauna in most areas and resulted in a decline in European biodiversity (Fahrig et al 2011;Ferreira et al 2013;Brunbjerg et al 2017;Fardila et al 2017;Poschlod and Braun-Reichert 2017;Hass et al 2018;Kurze et al 2018). As for most other taxonomic groups, the reasons for the decline in orchid biodiversity include habitat loss, eutrophication and fragmentation (Wotavová et al 2004;Janečková et al 2006;Kull et al 2016).…”

Section: Orchids and Their Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors determining the distribution of orchids – a review with examples from the Czech Republic

Štípková

Kindlmann

2021

European Journal of Environmental Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The natural environment has been significantly altered by human activity over the past few decades. There is evidence we are now experiencing the sixth mass extinction, as many species of plants and animals are declining in abundance. We focused on the Orchidaceae because this plant family has experienced one of the biggest reductions in distribution. We investigated patterns in species richness and distribution of orchids, the rate and causes of their decrease and extinction, and factors influencing their occurrence in the Czech Republic and Greece. The key findings are: (i) Method of pollination and type of rooting system are associated with their distributions and they are different in the two countries. We assume that these differences might be due to the difference in the orography, distribution of suitable habitats and types of bedrock in these two countries. (ii) The greatest reduction in distribution was recorded for critically endangered taxa of orchids. The number of sites suitable for orchids in the Czech Republic declined by 8-92%. The most threatened orchid species are Spiranthes spiralis, Anacamptis palustris, Epipogium aphyllum and Goodyera repens. The distribution of orchids in the Czech Republic is mainly determined by the distribution of their habitats. (iii) The most important factor affecting the distribution of Czech orchids in South Bohemia is land cover. And the most important types of habitats (types in KVES) are oak and oak-hornbeam forests and agricultural meadows. Based on this information, it should be possible to improve the management that is crucial for maintaining orchid localities.

show abstract

“…Vandewoestijne et al 1999;Wood and Pullin 2002;Schmitt et al 2003Schmitt et al , 2005aHabel et al 2010Habel et al , 2011Wendt et al 2021). It follows that despite strong decline of the species in Central Europe (van Swaay et al 2010, Brunbjerg et al 2017 and in contrast to earlier pessimistic views for the study region (Hula et al 2004), no remarkable genetic erosion has taken place in western Bohemian colonies. This agrees with both the high number of known colonies and the high overall census numbers (Zimmermann et al 2011a).…”

Section: Genetic Diversity and Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The entirety of E. aurinia colonies in western Bohemia has maintained most of its original genetic diversity and is surviving in a mostly well-connected system, supporting earlier conjectures based on mark-recapture surveys (Zimmermann et al 2011a, b). It seems less threatened than in many other regions of Western and Central Europe (Schtickzelle et al 2005;Bos et al 2006;Bulman et al 2007;Brunbjerg et al 2017).…”

Section: Implications For Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gene-flow within a butterfly metapopulation: the marsh fritillary Euphydryas aurinia in western Bohemia (Czech Republic)

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In human-altered landscapes, species with specific habitat requirements tend to persist as metapopulations, forming colonies restricted to patches of suitable habitats, displaying mutually independent within-patch dynamics and interconnected by inter-colony movements of individuals. Despite intuitive appeal and both empirical and analytical evidence, metapopulations of only relatively few butterfly systems had been both monitored for multiple years to quantify metapopulation dynamics, and assayed from the point of view of population genetics. We used allozyme analysis to study the genetic make-up of a metapopulation of a declining and EU-protected butterfly, Euphydryas aurinia, inhabiting humid grasslands in western Czech Republic, and reanalysed previously published demography and dispersal data to interpret the patterns. For 497 colony x year visits to the 97 colonies known at that time, we found annual extinction and colonisation probabilities roughly equal to 4%. The genetic diversity within colonies was intermediate or high for all assessed parameters of population genetic diversity and hence higher than expected for such a habitat specialist species. All the standard genetic diversity measures were positively correlated to adult counts and colony areas, but the correlations were weak and rarely significant, probably due to the rapid within-colony population dynamics. Only very weak correlations applied to larval nests numbers. We conclude that the entirety of colonies forms a well-connected system for their majority. Especially in its core parts, we assume a metapopulation structure with a dynamic equilibrium between local extinction and recolonization. It is vital to conserve in particular these structures of large and interconnected colonies.Implications for insect conservation: Conservation measures should focus on considering more in depth the habitat requirements of E. aurinia for management plans and on stabilisation strategies for colonies, especially of peripheral ones, e.g. by habitat restoration.

show abstract

The collapse of marsh fritillary ( Euphydryas aurinia ) populations associated with declining host plant abundance

Cited by 22 publications

References 43 publications

Host‐plant availability drives the spatiotemporal dynamics of interacting metapopulations across a fragmented landscape

Host‐plant availability drives the spatiotemporal dynamics of interacting metapopulations across a fragmented landscape

Factors determining the distribution of orchids – a review with examples from the Czech Republic

Gene-flow within a butterfly metapopulation: the marsh fritillary Euphydryas aurinia in western Bohemia (Czech Republic)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About