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Deploying Community Scientists to Conduct Nondestructive Genetic Sampling of Rare Butterfly Populations

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Published on: October 28, 2022

Encroaching forests decouple alpine butterfly population dynamics.

Jens Roland¹, Stephen F Matter

¹Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E9. jroland@ualberta.ca

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|August 19, 2007

Summary

Rising treelines fragment alpine meadows, isolating butterfly populations. Forested areas, not just distance, disrupt population dynamics and reduce synchrony for the alpine butterfly Parnassius smintheus.

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Conservation Biology
Zoology

Background:

Rising treelines in the Rocky Mountains are shrinking alpine meadows.
Habitat fragmentation isolates populations of alpine species.
The alpine butterfly Parnassius smintheus is vulnerable to habitat changes.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how forest encroachment affects population dynamics of Parnassius smintheus.
To determine the role of habitat connectivity in population synchrony.
To assess the impact of decoupling on local and regional extinction risks.

Main Methods:

Analysis of an 11-year butterfly population dataset.
Studied 17 subpopulations of Parnassius smintheus along Jumpingpound Ridge.
Compared synchrony of population dynamics with Euclidean and forest-mediated distances.

Main Results:

Forest habitat between alpine meadows decouples Parnassius smintheus population dynamics.
Distance through forest, not straight-line distance, dictates population synchrony.
Encroaching forest reduces butterfly dispersal and gene flow.

Conclusions:

Habitat fragmentation by rising treelines creates smaller, isolated populations.
Decoupled dynamics increase local extinction risk but may lower regional extinction risk in unpredictable environments.