Monarch butterflies are one of the most migratory animals on Earth. Each fall, a new generation of orange and black insects emerges in the northern United States and southern Canada. They then take to the skies and fly to the mountains of central Mexico, 4,485 to 4,982 miles away. To aid this grueling migration, a team of scientists planted new wintering grounds along the slopes of Mexican volcanoes. Regarding the experimental method, The study was published in the journal Frontier on October 18th. Forests and global change.
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Butterflies overwinter in the forest. sacred fir tree (Sakhalin fir) at high altitudes. But these forests, which the monarchs need to survive migration, are at risk from climate change. The trees are expected to slowly move up the slope. scientist It is expected that this will happen by around 2090. They will run out of space to grow. Creating new forests outside the insect’s current geographic range, further east and in high mountains, could be a solution.
“Here we demonstrate the feasibility of planting a new sacred fir forest on the nearby Nevado de Toluca volcano at an altitude of 3,400 to 4,000 meters. [11,154 and 13,123 feet]said study co-author and biologist Cuauhtemoc Sáenz Romero of the University of Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo in Mexico. stated in a statement. “We call this ‘assisted migration.’ Due to global warming, existing sacred fir populations are being moved to new locations where the climate is predicted to be similar to their current wintering grounds by 2060. Planting seedlings grown from seeds.
in 2017the team in this study collected seeds from cones from eight bundles of sacred fir trees in Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR). These trees grow between 10,170 feet and 11,482 feet above sea level. For the first two years, they grew the seedlings in a shade shed at an elevation of 6,233 feet. They then grew them in a nursery at 9,842 feet above sea level.
in July 2021the team transplanted the seedlings to four locations on the northeast slope of the mountain. Nevado de Toluca Volcano. They chose Nevado de Toluca because it is geographically the closest mountain to MBBR, but its peak is approximately 9,707 feet higher than the butterfly sanctuary and is designated as a nature reserve.
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Seedlings were planted at four elevations: 11,154 feet, 11,811 feet, 12,467 feet, and 13,123 feet. The latter elevation is the treeline of Nevado de Toluca and was included to help the team find the highest elevation at which sacred fir can survive in today’s climate. Every two months from September 2021 to December 2023, the team will We measured the performance of each seedling: survival, height, and diameter..
The researchers found that performance survival and growth worsened when seedlings were transplanted to locations that were colder and higher than the original stand of MBBR. At the highest elevation, 13,123 feet, growth was near zero and many seedlings suffered from frost damage. However, between elevations of 11,811 feet and 12,467 feet, vertical seedling growth was reduced by 54 percent, biomass was reduced by 27 percent, and survival was reduced by 27 percent compared to the 11,154 foot baseline. According to the authors, This survival is “very acceptable”.
“These plantations could eventually serve as overwintering sites for monarch butterflies in a warmer climate,” Saenz-Romero concluded. “In fact, monarch butterflies have been building new and larger colonies in colder areas within Nevado de Toluca in recent years. ”We hope that once our seedlings are fully grown, they will also discover our planting location. ”
