Essays on Invertebrate Conservation
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WINGS ESSAYS ON INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION THE XERCES SOCIETY SPRING 2014 CONTENTS This issue of Wings sheds light on two very different and largely understudied groups of invertebrates. The first article looks at the impacts of oil spills on marine species. The other two essays focus on arachnids; one introduces us to a citizen- science proj- ect studying spiders in Colorado, and one to the fascinating order of camel spiders. The Changing Landscape of Conservation Scott Hoffman Black Page 3. Oil Spills and Marine Invertebrates Scott Hoffman Black, Michele Blackburn, Celeste Mazzacano, and Candace Fallon Oil spills leave millions of gallons of oil in our seas and oceans every year. Each spill has impacts that can affect invertebrate communities for decades. Page 6. The Colorado Spider Survey Paula E. Cushing Spiders are woefully understudied. A fifteen-year-old citizen-science program is changing that situation for Colorado arachnids. Page 13. Hairy, Scary, Haarskeeders Paula E. Cushing, Jack O. Brookhart, and Jen Rowsell Camel spiders are fast-moving and fearsome desert predators. Page 17. Conservation Spotlight Dr. Karen Oberhauser, scientist and advocate for monarch butterflies.Page 22. Invertebrate Notes A roundup of new books and recent research. Page 24. Staff Profile Meet Matthew Shepherd, our communications director. Page 26. Xerces News Updates on Xerces Society projects and successes. Page 27. 2 WINGS The Changing Landscape of Conservation Scott Hoffman Black I have worked on the conservation of restore sand dunes degraded by human rare and declining animals for more activities for tiger beetles, or ensure that than twenty-five years. For invertebrates enough water flows through streams this has typically meant addressing the harboring rare stoneflies. Work such as conservation needs of animals living in this is vital to ensure the survival of en- a small number of easily identified sites. dangered species and will continue to be This type of conservation work is often a focus of the Xerces Society. straightforward: You prioritize specific Unfortunately, the conservation issues that help the species thrive on landscape is changing, and over the last the habitat that remains and, where fea- few years we have started to see declines sible, work to expand habitat. We man- in widespread and common species. age livestock to prevent overgrazing of The rusty patched bumble bee used to meadows that support rare butterflies, be common from the upper Midwest It is becoming increasingly apparent that even species that were once common or widespread are disappearing from our landscapes. Rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis), photographed on catnip (Nepeta) by Christy Stewart. SPRING 2014 3 to the Northeastern seaboard. It is now fications for monarch migration, and only found at a few dozen sites across its in the coming years monarchs may range and warrants endangered species be missing from many areas of North protection. An analysis of the status of America where they were formerly all North American bumble bee species, common. The loss of monarchs has undertaken by the Xerces Society in been tracked thanks to a loyal band of conjunction with the continent’s lead- enthusiasts; other common butterflies ing bumble bee scientists, shows that have also suffered marked declines but approximately one-third of all species these have generally occurred with little are of serious conservation concern. public awareness. Many of these were the ones you would A few years ago, I gave a keynote have seen in your yard. talk on the status of North American Widespread butterfly species are butterflies at the International Butterfly also becoming less common. Monarchs Conservation Symposium in Reading, have declined from perhaps as many England. In preparation I compiled in- as half a billion butterflies in the mid- formation about the continent’s but- 1990s to only 33 million today. That terflies. The data from NatureServe, an may seem like a large number, but it organization that produces scientific represents a drop of more than 90 per- assessments of biodiversity, suggested cent. This could have serious rami- that more than 17 percent of butterfly With a dedicated following of gardeners and advocates, the monarch is a flag- ship species for conservation. Steep declines in the butterfly’s population mean that it may be missing from gardens in coming years. Monarch (Danaus plex- ippus) nectaring on blazing star (Liatris), photographed by Bryan E. Reynolds. 4 WINGS species were at risk of extinction. But major cause of milkweed loss through- this data has a limitation; it shows only out the Midwest and are thought to be whether a species is at risk of extinction, a principal reason for monarch decline. not whether it is in decline. Millions of acres of farms and urban I next asked a series of questions land are also treated with insecticides. of many of my colleagues who have Neonicotinoids, the most commonly decades of experience in studying and used insecticides in the world, have been conserving butterflies. I was amazed in the spotlight because the science sug- that most of the responses to the last gests that they are having a profound question—what is the most important impact on both terrestrial and aquatic take-home message about butterfly insects and other invertebrates. Diseas- conservation in North America?—were es spread from managed bumble bees a variation on the same answer: Com- may be playing a major role in the broad mon butterflies seem to be declining decline in native bumble bees. The last across broad landscapes. significant factor is climate change, Here are three comments that reso- more accurately referred to as climate nated most deeply. Dr. Jaret Daniels, of de stabilization. A year of drought is bro- the University of Florida, said, “what ken by intense rainstorms, winters seem should be most alarming to all of us colder and blizzards more frequent, the is that this downward trend has now hurricane season sends powerful storms spilled over to include many previously further north: animals have a lot to con- more wide-ranging and common but- tend with. terflies.” Dr. John Shuey, chair of the So how do we address large-scale, Lepidopterists’ Society’s conservation widespread declines of species we for- committee, noted that “many species mally took for granted? Putting fences we once took for granted are in serious around habitats will not work. Large trouble.” This was underscored by Dr. areas of high-quality, insecticide-free Art Shapiro, of the University of Califor- habitats will be needed and these habi- nia at Davis, who has been monitoring tats must be connected wherever pos- butterflies on the same sites in Califor- sible. This is not an effort that is restrict- nia for nearly forty years: “My research ed to distant wilderness, but a cause in group can say that lowland butterfly which everyone can take part. Home- faunas, including ‘weedy’ species, are owners and farmers can plant native declining precipitously.” flowers and work to limit the impact of Why is this occurring? We don’t insecticides; land managers can provide know for sure, although there are sev- resilient habitat for a variety of species; eral likely contributing factors. Habi- and all of us can vote with our pocket- tat loss due to urban development and books by buying sustainable, organic, large-scale agriculture are key concerns. and GMO-free products. Farms now cover vast areas and many Aldo Leopold wrote in A Sand Coun grow genetically modified crops that ty Almanac, “One of the penalties of an allow herbicides to be used on a much ecological education is that one lives larger scale on and around them. These alone in a world of wounds.” It is time to “Roundup-ready” crops have become a heal as many wounds as possible. SPRING 2014 5 Oil Spills and Marine Invertebrates Scott Hoffman Black, Michele Blackburn, Celeste Mazzacano, and Candace Fallon The names Exxon Valdez and Deepwater oil impacted almost every habitat in Horizon are seared into our collective the northern Gulf, including the deep- memory as environmental disasters sea floor, and moved through the water without parallel. In 1989 the Exxon to coastal wetlands, estuaries, beaches, Valdez smashed into rocks in Alaska’s and mangrove stands. Prince William Sound and spilled at These may be the events people re- least 11 million U.S. gallons (42 mil- member best, but they are by no means lion liters) of oil—some calculations es- the only significant oil spills in the last timate that the volume was twice that half century. In 1969, the barge Florida much—which ultimately spread across sank in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, 400 miles (650 kilometers) of shoreline. spilling 185,000 gallons (700,000 liters) As the oil fanned out, it coated rock sur- of fuel oil. The Tsesis oil tanker spilled faces and penetrated sediments, caus- about 252,000 gallons (955,000 liters) ing widespread mortality and morbid- of fuel oil along the coast of Sweden in ity among the coastal and intertidal the Baltic Sea in October 1977. The Ixtoc I mussels, echinoderms, amphipods, platform blowout in 1979 released an es- and crabs that made their homes in timated 140 million gallons (530 million Prince William Sound. Exposure per- liters) of oil into the Bay of Campeche in sisted for as much as twenty years at the southern Gulf of Mexico. The North those sites where oil remained trapped Cape barge struck ground during a storm in sediment. off the coast of Rhode Island in January This was the largest single oil spill 1996, spilling an estimated 828,000 gal- in U.S. waters—until April 2010, when lons (3.1 million liters) of fuel oil into an explosion occurred on the Deep Block Island Sound.