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

全球物种越来越多地面临城市化和气候变化等干扰的多重威胁。并不是所有的威胁都可以通过当地的保护行动直接解决。相反，保护可能试图通过管理当地条件(如食物供应)来减少或抵消更大威胁(如气候变化)的影响。对于这些方法是否以及何时应该成功，我们仍然知之甚少。为了解决这个问题，这项研究和保护项目调查了城市化、气候变化和栖息地管理对一种稀有蝴蝶--水晶蝶(Atrytonopsis Quinteri)的影响。这种小昆虫是北卡罗来纳州50公里障碍岛的特有物种，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断开的。所有生命阶段都面临着来自天气和气候压力的风险。该项目旨在改进对水晶鱼的监测和管理方法。通过这样做，它为在具有复杂生命周期的生物体中保护管理如何与气候相互作用提供了更广泛的见解。该项目还为研究生、本科生和职业生涯初期的保护专业人员提供综合研究和保护培训，并让当地利益相关者参与监测和推广。该项目的具体目标是：(1)开发一种严谨、可持续和公正的调查方法来估计水晶鱼种群的大小和趋势，(2)评估寄主植物和花蜜植物之间的连通性在限制水晶鱼种群中的作用，(3)评估管理是否可以增加水晶鱼种群并抵消气候变化的影响，以及(4)对现有的水晶鱼保护计划实施适应性、健壮性和战略性的改进。这项研究结合了现代技术(无人驾驶航空系统探测零星的花蜜资源)、实地调查和电路理论，以量化移动生物如何在城市基质中使用资源。它还将人口率与环境和气候变量联系起来，并构建了一个机械的种群模型，以检验管理干预和天气/气候变化对弹涂鱼种群增长的影响。最后，它结合了研究、监测和利益相关者的意见，以确定管理行动的优先顺序，并开发了一个自适应监测计划，以解决阻碍Crystal Skipper管理的关键不确定性。该项目由环境生物学和整合组织系统部门和Paul G.Allen家庭基金会共同参与的一个联合计划支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.