Connectivity for a complex life cycle: Conserving the Crystal skipper butterfly in a coastal urban environment

复杂生命周期的连通性：在沿海城市环境中保护水晶船长蝴蝶

• 批准号: 2301831
• 负责人: Elsa Youngsteadt
• 金额: $ 42.97万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-05-01 至 2026-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2301831&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Connectivity; complex; life; cycle; Conserving

Species around the globe increasingly face multiple threats from disturbances such as urbanization and climate change. Not all threats can be directly addressed through local conservation actions. Instead, conservation may attempt to reduce or offset the effects of a larger threat (such as climate change) by managing local conditions (such as food availability). We still know very little about whether and when these approaches should succeed. To address this problem, this research and conservation project investigates effects of urbanization, climate change, and habitat management on a rare butterfly, the Crystal skipper (Atrytonopsis quinteri). This small insect is endemic to 50 km of North Carolina barrier islands, where larvae and adults require distinct resources—host plants and nectar—that may be disconnected in an urban landscape. All life stages also face risks from weather and climate stressors. This project aims to improve monitoring and management approaches for the Crystal skipper. In doing so, it provides broader insights into how conservation management may interact with climate in organisms with complex life cycles. This project also provides integrative research and conservation training for a graduate student, undergraduate students, and early-career conservation professionals, and involves local stakeholders in monitoring and outreach. The specific objectives of this project are to: (1) develop a rigorous, sustainable, and unbiased survey methodology to estimate skipper population size and trends, (2) evaluate the role of connectivity (ease of movement) between host plants and nectar plants in limiting skipper populations, (3) assess whether management can increase Crystal skipper populations and offset effects of climate change, and (4) implement adaptive, robust, and strategic improvements to the existing Crystal skipper conservation plan. This research combines modern technologies (unmanned aerial systems to detect patchy nectar resources), field surveys, and circuit theory to quantify how mobile organisms use resources in an urban matrix. It also relates demographic rates to environmental and climate variables and constructs a mechanistic population model to test the effects of management interventions and weather/climate variation on skipper population growth. Finally, it combines results of research, monitoring, and stakeholder input to prioritize management actions and develop an adaptive monitoring program that will resolve critical uncertainties impeding Crystal skipper management.This project is being supported via a joint program involving the Divisions of Environmental Biology and Integrative Organismal Systems and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

全球各地的物种日益面临城市化和气候变化等干扰带来的多重威胁，并非所有威胁都可以通过当地保护行动直接解决，相反，保护可能会尝试减少或抵消更大威胁（例如气候变化）的影响。通过管理当地条件（例如食物供应），我们仍然对这些方法是否以及何时能够成功知之甚少。为了解决这个问题，这个研究和保护项目调查了城市化、气候变化和栖息地管理对稀有蝴蝶的影响。 , 水晶船长 (Atrytonopsis这种小昆虫是北卡罗来纳州 50 公里的障壁岛的特有种，那里的幼虫和成虫需要不同的资源（寄主植物和花蜜），而这些资源在城市景观中可能是互不相关的。该项目旨在改进水晶船长的监测和管理方法，从而为保护管理如何与复杂生命周期的生物体的气候相互作用提供更广泛的见解。该项目的具体目标是：(1) 制定严格、可持续和公正的调查方法来估计船长种群规模和趋势。 ，（2）评估寄主植物和蜜源植物之间的连通性（易于移动）在限制船长种群中的作用，（3）评估管理是否可以增加水晶船长种群并抵消气候变化的影响，以及（4）实施适应性，对现有 Crystal 进行稳健且战略性的改进这项研究结合了现代技术（无人机系统来检测斑驳的花蜜资源）、实地调查和电路理论，以量化移动生物如何在城市矩阵中使用资源，并将人口比率与环境和气候变量联系起来。最后，它结合了研究、监测和利益相关者输入的结果，以确定管理行动的优先顺序并制定适应性监测计划，以解决阻碍的关键不确定性。水晶该项目由环境生物学和综合有机系统部门以及 Paul G. Allen 家族基金会联合计划提供支持。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力评估进行评估，认为值得支持。优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。