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Butterflies struggling with cli mate change anddevelopmentBy Suzanne BohanContra Costa TimesPosted 01192010 120100 AM PSTUpdated 01192010 120939 AM PST

It doesnt take much to send a butterfly fleeing

Just a several-degree rise in average temperat ures over three decades led toa dive in the number of the colorful fluttering in sects thriving in the briskenvirons of the high Sierra Neva da acc ording t o a new study f rom UC Davis

And with no higher ground to head to prospect s for alpine butt erfly speciessuch as the Small Wood Nym ph and Nevad a S kipper look blea k

There is nowhere to go exce pt heaven sa id A rthur Shapiro a UC Davisprofessor of evolution and ec ology

During the past 35 years Shapiro has built the w orlds largest database of regional butterfly activity from his twice-monthly o bservations of 159 speciesat 10 sites from Suisun Marsh to the peaks of the Sierra The massivedatabase now reveals an unmistakable pattern of butterflies traveling tohigher elevations as average temperatures rise The analysis was publishedlast week in the Proceedings of the National Aca demy of Scie nces

Since the charis mat ic ins ects serve as sensitive barometers to environmentalchanges the database adds to mounting evidence of how a warming worldwill affect wild species in the state

The database also shows that its a one-two punch of habitat l oss and temperature increases that have sharplyreduced butterfly populations in low elevations Shapiro said W hat shocked Shapiro is the local disappearance of even common species in the flatlands

TheLarge Marble with white upper wings and mottledyellow white and black under wings feeds onabundant weedy plants such as mustard and wildradish

Now its population has crashed at the studys sealevel sites and the species faces regional extinctionhe said Of the 10 study sites seven had declines inthese weedy species of butterfly that were oncecommon

I could walk two blocks from my house and find itflying along a roadside ditch Shapiro said Now tocount on finding it I have to go to the east side of the Sierra

Its absolutely astonishing because as you knowtheres no lack of weedy mustard or wild radishShapiro added

In the areas hes studying in the Central Valleysuburban sprawl has fractured butterfly habitatShapiro explained So butterflies seeking their typical

meal of plant nectar might perish before finding enough food even if the plants are still plentiful overall

The farther they have to go the less likely theyll live long enough to hit a patch Shapiro said And warmingtemperatures only add to the stress he said even if its just a few degrees on average

Shapiro who wrote Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions said thatbutterflies abundance and diversity throughout the Bay Area are also likely affected in similar ways

Terry Root a senior fellow with the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University described Shapirosbutterfly database as absolutely spectacular Its rare she explained for a study of this duration to be conducted byone person which reduces errors from different measurement techniques

It also shows that the effect of warming temperatures is occurring as fast as shes been warning it would Root saidIt makes me a little bit more worried

While habitat loss is blamed for much of the catastrophic declines of many lowland butterfly species Shapiro said

theres little doubt temperature increases have altered the distribution of these insects in the Sierra since there hasbeen no habitat loss in the areas under study

Although warming temperatures dont bode well for butterflies that have long made the chilly alpine regions of theHigh Sierra their home mdash since they have no escape mdash plenty of newcomers have arrived as temperatures warmed

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882019 Butterflies Struggling With Climate Change and Development - San Jose Mercury News

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below All of the 10 sites Shapiro and his colleagues have tracked show declines in the overall number of butterfliesexcept for the highest elevation site at 9100 feet

So while alpine natives like Small Wood Nymph and Nevada Skipper are declining for the first time researchers arefinding butterflies there that typically live at the 7000-foot elevation Anna Blue and Hoffmanns Checkerspotbutterflies in previous years were found only at the Donner Pass research site But as average temperatures haveincreased about 7 degrees Fahrenheit in the Donner Pass area since the study began 35 years ago theyre makingcooler areas at higher elevations their new home

For Shapiro whose fascination with butterflies dates to his childhood that prospect means hard choices for ecologists working to preserve the diversity of butterflies in the state Saving some species may mean planting thefoods they need in their new locations mdash a costly proposition

Conservation involves a lot of choices he said Were going to be called upon to play God because we cant save

everything

Suzanne Bohan covers science Contact her at 510-262-2789 Follow her at Twittercomsuzbohan onlineGo to httpbutterflyucdavisedu to learn more about the work of UC Davis butterfly expert Arthur ShapiroThe site includesphotos life histories of butterfly species population trends tips for creating a butterfly garden and a gamefor learning butterfly identification

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