Butterfly declines in protected areas of Illinois: Assessing the influence of two decades of climate and landscape change.

ABSTRACT: Despite increasing concern regarding broad-scale declines in insects, there are few published long-term, systematic butterfly surveys in North America, and fewer still that have incorporated the influence of changing climate and landscape variables. In this study, we analyzed 20 years of citizen science data at seven consistently monitored protected areas in Illinois, U.S.A. We used mixed models and PERMANOVA to evaluate trends in butterfly abundance, richness, and composition while also evaluating the effects of temperature and land use. Overall butterfly richness, but not abundance, increased in warmer years. Surprisingly, richness also was positively related to percent impervious surface (at the 2 km radius scale), highlighting the conservation value of protected areas in urban landscap

SUBMITTER: Kucherov NB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8513915 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature