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   Message 5,942 of 8,931   
   ScienceDaily to All   
   Park rangers use butterflies to take pla   
   02 May 22 22:30:42   
   
   MSGID: 1:317/3 6270b040   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Park rangers use butterflies to take planet's pulse in a biodiversity   
   hotspot    
      
     Date:   
         May 2, 2022   
     Source:   
         Florida Museum of Natural History   
     Summary:   
         For the last decade, biologists have documented a worrying decline   
         in insect abundance, which some fear may prelude an arthropod   
         apocalypse.   
      
         These studies, however, are primarily carried out in temperature   
         regions while the tropics, which harbor the vast majority of   
         insect species, largely remains a black box. In a new study,   
         biologists turn to the aid of park rangers in Ecuador's Yasuni'   
         National Park -- considered one of the most biodiverse ecosystems   
         on the planet -- to assess changes to insect abundance.   
      
      
      
   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   For the last decade, biologists have documented a worrying decline   
   in insect abundance, which some fear may prelude an arthropod   
   apocalypse. These studies, however, are primarily carried out in   
   temperature regions while the tropics, which harbor the vast majority   
   of insect species, largely remains a black box.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   In 2017, a group of scientists raised alarm bells by showing that flying   
   insects had declined in Germany by more than 70% in the three preceding   
   decades. Studies before and since then have shown similar patterns   
   in insects on a global scale. But with 1 million known species --   
   and conservative estimates indicating there are millions more awaiting   
   discovery -- there aren't nearly enough entomologists to document the   
   full scale of insect diversity, much less how their populations change   
   over time.   
      
   In a new study, entomologists turn to the aid of park rangers in   
   Ecuador's Yasuni' National Park, broadly considered to be one of the most   
   biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. Researchers, students and park staff   
   have been actively engaged in monitoring butterfly abundance in Yasuni'   
   since 2016 in an ongoing project that flips the script on the way most   
   survey efforts are conducted in the tropics.   
      
   "This study has obvious benefits for science and conservation, but it was   
   also important that it include social benefits for the people we worked   
   with," said lead author Maria Checa, a researcher at the Pontifical   
   Catholic University of Ecuador and a former doctoral student at the   
   Florida Museum of Natural History.   
      
   "We still know so little about the impacts of environmental change in   
   tropical areas, because we simply don't have enough researchers with   
   the expertise to study these regions," she said. "We need to empower   
   local actors with this knowledge, because they are key stakeholders in   
   conservation."  Building alternatives to parachute biology Scientists who   
   focus on conservation often run into a roadblock early in their endeavors:   
   Most of the world's biodiversity is unevenly distributed in the tropics,   
   but the majority of researchers who study it primarily live in temperate   
   regions. As a result, the flora and fauna of many industrialized countries   
   are relatively well-studied and benefit from extensive monitoring   
   programs, like the decades-long survey of insect declines in Germany.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   A similar United Kingdom program using butterflies as a proxy for the   
   health of insect communities was launched in 1976 and has since been   
   adopted in at least 19 other European countries. These ongoing surveys   
   offer a wealth of data for scientists, but the patterns they reveal   
   provide only a small snapshot of the changes occurring globally.   
      
   "In Great Britain, you're dealing with less than 60 butterfly species,   
   while in Yasuni' alone there's likely more than 1,500," said senior   
   author Keith Willmott, curator and director of the Florida Museum's   
   McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity.   
      
   Scientists from many industrialized countries have tried to make up for   
   this imbalance by conducting short-term projects in tropical ecosystems,   
   often paying local residents to help with surveys and collections. This   
   practice, sometimes called parachute biology, can yield important   
   scientific insights.   
      
   But when the project concludes or the funding runs dry, researchers   
   return to their institutions, and residents return to their normal lives.   
      
   Willmott says these limited surveys will be insufficient to effectively   
   monitor long-term population trends and help stave off what is currently   
   the worst extinction event since the death of the dinosaurs.   
      
   "Trying to make sense of abundance patterns in a tropical community where   
   there's less climate seasonality and a myriad of complex interactions   
   taking place is incredibly complicated and requires long-term datasets,"   
   he said.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Getting these programs started and keeping them going, however, isn't   
   always an option in remote regions where human populations are scarce. So   
   when park rangers expressed interest in helping survey butterflies in   
   Yasuni' in 2015, Willmott saw the potential for a broad-scale partnership.   
      
   "Ecuador is dotted with national parks that have pristine forests, and   
   part of the job responsibilities for many park rangers is to conduct   
   biodiversity monitoring. It just seemed to us that this was a potential   
   solution to the expense and logistics of managing these projects,"   
   he said.   
      
   Butterflies are an ideal early warning system Even with the help of park   
   rangers, there is no realistic way to feasibly sample the diversity of   
   an entire rainforest. Instead, biologists rely on indicator species,   
   organisms that are broadly distributed and easy to find but are sensitive   
   enough to environmental change that they can be used to infer how related   
   groups are faring.   
      
   For insects, those indicator species are butterflies.   
      
   "There are a number of reasons they make good indicators," Willmott   
   said. "They can be found just about everywhere, they're incredibly diverse   
   and they reflect what's going on in other organisms."  Butterflies occupy   
   a central role in mazelike ecosystem webs. Most rely exclusively on   
   plants for food, and plants -- in turn -- rely on butterflies for   
   pollination. Caterpillars and butterflies also make a good meal for   
   predators higher on the food chain. If you take butterflies out of   
   the equation, the webs that bind natural communities together begin   
   to unravel.   
      
   This makes them the perfect litmus test for gauging ecosystem health.   
      
   And butterflies have another advantage that helps them stand out from   
   the crowd. "From a practical point of view, there's no question that   
   they are by far the easiest insect group to identify," Willmott said. In   
   a place as diverse as Ecuador, this last component is imperative.   
      
   Park rangers collect and compile diversity data Working with Checa,   
   Willmott, co-author Sofia Nogales from Ecuador's National Institute of   
   Biodiversity and their colleagues, the rangers quickly learned how to   
   collect butterflies with bait traps and identify the most common species.   
      
   Since 2017, they've been conducting regular surveys with comparable   
   accuracy rates to those of trained field biologists. But their   
   contribution to the study didn't end there.   
      
   "The rangers wanted to be more involved with the project, so we started   
   talking about writing up a manuscript together," Checa said. "We set up   
   a workshop in Quito in which we provided computers and taught them how   
   to run basic statistical analyses on the butterfly data."  For Checa,   
   the project represents an important shift in the way biodiversity   
   monitoring is carried out in her home country of Ecuador, one that she   
   hopes will help protect sensitive ecosystems and give voice to those   
   who inhabit them.   
      
   "The people who live in rural areas near protected forests often lack   
   resources and opportunities for formal training. It's challenging   
   for many to even finish high school," she said. "We're talking about   
   decentralizing knowledge from academic institutions to local people and   
   from cities to rural areas."  The Yasuni' National Park rangers, three   
   of whom are co-authors on this study, are currently in the process of   
   analyzing the data they continue to collect, which they plan to publish   
   in an upcoming article. "We are proud to be the first park rangers in   
   Ecuador to carry out a successful long-term monitoring program -- this   
   project has enriched our knowledge of biodiversity and the importance   
   of insects in ecosystems, especially butterflies, helping us to better   
   carry out our work," said co-author Leslie Bustos.   
      
   Ongoing support from the national park's administration has also been and   
   continues to be critical for the project's success. Checa and Willmott   
   hope to expand the butterfly monitoring to additional protected areas   
   within Ecuador in the near future.   
      
   The researchers published their findings in Insect Conservation and   
   Diversity.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by   
   Florida_Museum_of_Natural_History. Note: Content may be edited for style   
   and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Related Multimedia:   
       * Butterflies_and_a_map   
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Maria F. Checa, Sofia Nogales, Patricio A. Salazar, Leslie Bustos,   
         Vernardo Ojeda, Alcy Bustos, Keith R. Willmott. Implementing a novel   
         approach to long‐term monitoring of butterfly communities   
         in the Neotropics. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 2022; DOI:   
         10.1111/ icad.12567   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220502142625.htm   
      
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