Engaging the Community in Pollinator Research: The Effect of Wing Pattern and Weather on Butterfly Behavior
Engaging the Community in Pollinator Research: The Effect of Wing Pattern and Weather on Butterfly Behavior
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让社区参与传粉媒介研究：翅膀图案和天气对蝴蝶行为的影响
DOI：
10.1093/icb/icab153
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发表时间：
2021
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Westerman, Erica L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Merrill, Abbigail N;Hirzel, Grace E;Murphy, Matthew J;Imrie, Roslyn G;Westerman, Erica L
社区科学让学生和公众参与数据收集和科学探究，经常被纳入保护和长期监测工作。然而，它也有可能向公众介绍，并对感官生态学和其他研究领域有用。在这里，我们描述了一个社区科学项目，暴露参与者的动物行为和感官生态学使用丰富的蝴蝶社区西北阿肯色州，美国。蝴蝶使用视觉信号来交流和吸引配偶。更明亮的颜色可以产生更强的吸引配偶的信号，但也可能无意中引起捕食者的负面注意。环境条件，如天气，也会影响视觉信号，通过影响可用光的波长和随后的信号检测。然而，我们不知道蝴蝶呈现的信号是否与它们的行为广泛相关。在这项研究中，我们与数百名学生和社区成员在阿肯色州（UARK）和植物园的欧扎克（BGO）超过3.5年的时间来研究翅膀模式，天气，一天中的时间，行为和花卉选择之间的关系。我们发现，天气和翅膀的颜色都会影响蝴蝶的一般行为。蝴蝶在多云的日子比在阳光明媚或部分多云的日子进食更多。棕色蝴蝶进食或坐下的频率更高，而白色蝴蝶相对于其他颜色的蝴蝶飞行的频率更高。我们还发现，天气和翅膀颜色对蝴蝶行为的影响之间存在相互作用。此外，蝴蝶的颜色预测蝴蝶访问的花的颜色的选择，虽然这种效果是由观察员组（UARK学生或BGO参与者）的影响。这些结果表明，花卉选择可能与蝴蝶翅膀图案有关，并且不同的环境条件可能会以特定于翅膀图案的方式影响蝴蝶的行为。他们还说明了一种方式，公众参与行为研究可以促进识别粗尺度，社区范围内的行为模式，并为未来的感官生态位的研究奠定了基础。
Community science, which engages students and the public in data collection and scientific inquiry, is often integrated into conservation and long-term monitoring efforts. However, it has the potential to also introduce the public to, and be useful for, sensory ecology and other fields of study. Here we describe a community science project that exposes participants to animal behavior and sensory ecology using the rich butterfly community of Northwest Arkansas, United States. Butterflies use visual signals to communicate and to attract mates. Brighter colors can produce stronger signals for mate attraction but can also unintentionally attract negative attention from predators. Environmental conditions such as weather can affect visual signaling as well, by influencing the wavelengths of light available and subsequent signal detection. However, we do not know whether the signals butterflies present correlate broadly with how they behave. In this study, we collaborated with hundreds of students and community members at the University of Arkansas (UARK) and the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks (BGO) for over 3.5 years to examine relationships among wing pattern, weather, time of day, behavior, and flower choice. We found that both weather and wing color influenced general butterfly behavior. Butterflies were seen feeding more on cloudy days than on sunny or partly cloudy days. Brown butterflies fed or sat more often, while white butterflies flew more often relative to other butterfly colors. We also found that there was an interaction between the effects of weather and wing color on butterfly behavior. Furthermore, butterfly color predicted the choice of flower colors that butterflies visited, though this effect was influenced by the observer group (UARK student or BGO participant). These results suggest that flower choice may be associated with butterfly wing pattern, and that different environmental conditions may influence butterfly behavior in wing-pattern–specific ways. They also illustrate one way that public involvement in behavioral studies can facilitate the identification of coarse-scale, community-wide behavioral patterns, and lay the groundwork for future studies of sensory niches.