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

地球仪上的物种越来越多地面临来自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。我们对这些方法是否以及何时能够成功仍然知之甚少。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一种罕见的蝴蝶，水晶蝶（Atrytonopsis quinteri）的影响。这种小昆虫是特有的50公里的北卡罗来纳州屏障岛屿，幼虫和成年人需要不同的资源，寄主植物和花蜜，可能会断开在城市景观。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船长的监测和管理方法。在这样做的过程中，它提供了更广泛的见解，如何保护管理可能与气候的生物体具有复杂的生命周期。该项目还为研究生，本科生和早期职业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）制定严格、可持续和无偏见的调查方法，以估计船长种群规模和趋势，（2）评估连通性的作用（3）评估管理是否可以增加水晶花瓢虫种群并抵消气候变化的影响，以及（4）实施适应性，对现有的水晶船长保护计划进行了强有力的战略性改进。这项研究结合了现代技术（无人驾驶航空系统来检测零散的花蜜资源），实地调查和电路理论，以量化移动的生物如何使用城市矩阵中的资源。它还涉及人口率的环境和气候变量，并构建了一个机械人口模型来测试管理干预措施和天气/气候变化对船长人口增长的影响。最后，它结合了研究，监测和利益相关者的投入，优先管理行动的结果，并制定了一个适应性的监测计划，将解决关键的不确定性阻碍水晶skipper管理。艾伦家庭基金会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.