A citizen army for conservation: Quantifying participatory research on monarch butterflies and its impacts on science, conservation, and behavior Leslie Ries and Karen Oberhauser University of Maryland Dept of Biology National Socio-environmental Synthesis Center University of Minnesota Dept of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology and Extension Service
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Leslie Ries and Karen Oberhauser University of Maryland Dept of Biology
A citizen army for conservation: Quantifying participatory research on monarch butterflies and its impacts on science, conservation, and behavior. Leslie Ries and Karen Oberhauser University of Maryland Dept of Biology National Socio-environmental Synthesis Center University of Minnesota - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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A citizen army for conservation: Quantifying participatory research on monarch
butterflies and its impacts on science, conservation, and behavior
Leslie Ries and Karen OberhauserUniversity of Maryland
Dept of BiologyNational Socio-environmental Synthesis Center
University of MinnesotaDept of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology and
Extension Service
Overview of monarch biology
Stage 1: Stage 1: OverwinteringOverwintering
Stage 2: Stage 2: Spring migrationSpring migration
Stage 3: Summer breedingStage 3: Summer breeding
Stage 4: Stage 4: Fall migrationFall migration
Every stage of the monarch’s migratory and life cycle is monitored
Spring mig
ratio
n
Breeding &
expansion
OverwinterColony counts(WWF-Mx, TMC)
Spring migration JN
Juveniles & parasitesMLMP, MH
Adult Counts (NABA, IL, OH, FL, Shapiro, Weber)
arrival
TaggingMW, SWM
migration
Fall
Fall RoostsCM, LP, PP, JN
Fall migration JN, MW, CR
Photo: A. Davis
MONITORING PROGRAMS•NABA: North American Butterfly Association count program•IL: Illinois monitoring network•OH: Ohio monitoring network•Shapiro: No. CA monitoring program•Weber: MN monitoring site •MLMP: Monarch Larvae Monitoring Project•MH: Monarch Health•JN: Journey North•WWF-Mx: World Wildlife Fund in Mexico•TMC: Thanksgiving Monarch Counts•MW: MonarchWatch•SWM: Southwest Monarchs•CR: Correo Real•CM: Cape May roost monitoring•LP: Long Point roost monitoring•PP: Peninsula Point roost monitoring
Volunteers spent ~86,000 hours monitoring monarchs in 2011
• This map shows the number of hours for monarch-centric projects only
• There are multiple citizen-science projects that collect data on all adult butterflies, including monarchs, adding additional hundreds of hours of time by dedicated volunteers.
Citizen-science data have had a substantial impact on scholarship
Dark bars: studies using CS dataLight bars: studies not using CS data
Participation promotes and supports conservation activities
• Over 5600 people have registered “way-stations” and many put up signs that can engage the public
• Cit-sci data have been used to support many conservation activities such as site management, supporting conservation in legal battles, documenting losses due to habitat changes or natural disasters
Impacts of participating on volunteer behavior from one program
Participation:•Raises awareness of habitat loss and impacts on monarchs• Encourages support of
conservation in many ways
Num
ber
of r
espo
nden
ts
Nu
mb
er
of
resp
on
de
nts
Conclusions
Volunteers spend tens of thousands of hours each year collecting data specifically on monarchs (in addition to the tens of thousands of hours largely different volunteers spend performing general butterfly surveys)
Data collected by citizen-scientists have made substantial contributions to our knowledge of monarch biology, especially migration and population dynamics
Monarch volunteers are highly engaged to begin with, and participation increases their involvement in conservation and outreach
There is still tremendous potential to increase monitoring and both its scientific and social impacts
Thanks to the thousands of volunteers, program directors, and to many funding agencies, especially NSF.