Monarch Butterflies and Their Habitat Across North America
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Monitoring Monarch Butterflies and Their Habitat across North America Inventory and Monitoring Protocols and Data Standards for Monarch Conservation Please cite as: CEC. 2017. Monitoring Monarch Butteries and eir Habitat across North America: Inventory and Monitoring Protocols and Data Standards for Monarch Conservation. Montreal, Canada: Commission for Environmental Cooperation. 48 pp. is publication was prepared by Holly Holt of Monarch Joint Venture (University of Minnesota) for the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. e information contained herein is the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reect the views of [the CEC, or] the governments of Canada, Mexico or the United States of America. Reproduction of this document in whole or in part and in any form for educational or non-prot purposes may be made without special permission from the CEC Secretariat, provided acknowledgment of the source is made. e CEC would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication or material that uses this document as a source. Except where otherwise noted, this work is protected under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial–NoDerivative Works License. © Commission for Environmental Cooperation, 2017 ISBN: 978-2-89700-221-3 (e-version) Disponible en français – ISBN: 978-2-89700-223-7 (e-version) Disponible en español – ISBN: 978-2-89700-222-0 (e-version) Legal deposit – Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, 2017 Legal deposit – Library and Archives Canada, 2017 Publication Details Document category: Project publication Publication date: December 2017 Original language: English Review and quality assurance procedures: Final Party review: November 2017 QA323 Project: Operational Plan 2015–2016 / Monarch Buttery Flyway: Communication, Participatory Conservation, and Education Programs throughout the Migratory Route For more information: Commission for Environmental Cooperation 393, rue St-Jacques Ouest, bureau 200 Montreal (Quebec) H2Y 1N9 Canada t 514.350.4300 f 514.350.4314 [email protected] / www.cec.org Monitoring Monarch Butterflies and Their Habitat across North America Table of Contents Abstract vi Acknowledgements vi Executive summary vii 1. Summary of monarch reproduction and migration 1 2. Inventory and monitoring priorities established for North America 3 3. Estimating monarch overwintering density 5 4. Identifying the monarch’s natal origins 7 5. Evaluating the status and trends of monarchs and their habitat, and setting prioritized, spatially balanced site selection methodology and common data standards 11 Appendix A: Toluca monarch workshop, 4–5 March 2017 19 Appendix B: Monarch Data Blitz 23 Appendix C: Current status of national monitoring programs and analyses 25 Bibliography 37 National monitoring protocols for Canada, Mexico and the United States 43 List of Figures Figure 1. Monarch migration 2 Figure 2. Annual monarch life cycle, threats and associated priority trinational monitoring questions 13 Figure 3. Structure of Monarch Butterfly National Monitoring Network – Mexico (Red Nacional de Monitoreo de la Mariposa Monarca, México) 33 Figure 4. Examples of regional and local monitoring network structures 33 List of Tables Table 1. Monitoring organizations contributing data to national monitoring eorts 15 Table 2. MCSP Integrated Monitoring Framework Implementation activities, by year 31 Table 3. Mexican national monitoring activities, by year and program 35 Table 4. Additional contacts and online resources for Mexico 36 iv Commission for Environmental Cooperation List of Abbreviations and Acronyms AGOL ArcGIS (Geographic Information System) Online C carbon CEC Commission for Environmental Cooperation CMCSP Canadian Monarch Conservation Science Partnership Conabio Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity) (Mexico) Conanp Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (National Commission of Protected Natural Areas) (Mexico) CRP Conservation Reserve Program (US) ECCC Environment and Climate Change Canada GRTS generalized random tessellation stratied H hydrogen IA Iowa IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature LiDAR light detection and ranging MCSP Monarch Conservation Science Partnership (focused on eastern monarch population) (US) MI Michigan MJV Monarch Joint Venture MLMP Monarch Larva Monitoring Project MW Monarch Watch NFWF National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (US) NRCS Natural Resources Conservation Service (US) NWR National Wildlife Refuge (US) Oe Ophryocystis elektroscirrha PNAMP Pacic Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership PROFAUNA Protección de la Fauna Mexicana AC (Protection of Mexican Fauna AC) SD South Dakota Semarnat Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources) SOP standard operating procedure Sr strontium SSA species status assessment SWMS Southwest Monarch Study TAP Texas Advisory Panel TMCSP Trinational Monarch Conservation Science Partnership TX Texas UMN University of Minnesota UNAM Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico) UNC University of North Carolina US FWS United States Fish and Wildlife Service USGS United States Geological Survey WI Wisconsin WMCSP Western Monarch Conservation Science Partnership (focused on western monarch population) WMTC Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count WSSU Winston-Salem State University WWF Mexico World Wildlife Fund Mexico Monitoring Monarch Butterflies and Their Habitat across North America v Abstract As part of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s project Monarch Butterfly Flyway: Communication, Participatory Conservation, and Education Programs throughout the Migratory Route, a workshop entitled Monitoring Monarch Butterflies and their Habitat across North America was held in Toluca, Mexico, on 4–5 March 2017. Monitoring experts from Canada, Mexico and the United States gathered to identify trinational inventory and monitoring priorities. The main objectives were to: 1) identify shared monitoring priorities for Canada, Mexico and the United States, 2) discuss inventory and monitoring protocols for monarch butterflies and their habitat that are currently being implemented, compare, and where appropriate, outline steps for aligning monitoring activity methodology and reporting standards, and 3) establish shared monitoring action plans and set timelines. Shared monitoring priorities were identified and challenges, recommendations and next steps discussed. Acknowledgements We are grateful to all workshop attendees whose dedication to monarch conservation made this workshop a success. In particular, we would like to thank Gloria Antúnez and Teresa Flores for expert interpretation services. All participants are deeply appreciative of the ejidos San Antonio and San Francisco for their generosity in sharing the Las Palomas Colony with workshop attendees. Words cannot express the depth of our gratitude for this transformative experience. We also would like to thank Felipe Martínez for a field demonstration of measuring overwintering colony area, and Alfonso Alonso, Marco Castro, Greg Mitchell and Maxim Larrivée for their contributions. Finally, we wish to acknowledge the many citizen scientists who have contributed invaluable data to numerous monitoring programs; these data have formed the foundation of national monitoring efforts and analyses in progress. vi Commission for Environmental Cooperation Executive summary Monitoring both habitat availability to a species and its response to threats enables conservation professionals to evaluate and improve their conservation actions. However, establishing the status and population trends of a species requires capturing complex information, at large temporal and spatial scales. Therefore, it is a challenge to develop comprehensive monitoring strategies for migratory species when those species traverse ecological and political boundaries. In North America, monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) embark on an annual migration cycle that spans up to three countries, involving four generations of the species. We owe much of our understanding of monarch life-history to a rich array of citizen-science and other monitoring programs that have collectively unraveled this migratory phenomenon. Data gathered by these programs indicate that monarchs have significantly declined in the last 20 years. This decline has sparked trinational concern and highlighted the need for additional monitoring data to generate science- based conservation recommendations. To address this need, topic experts from Canada, Mexico and the United States gathered in Mexico City (February 2016) and formed the Trinational Monarch Conservation Science Partnership (TMCSP), which is focused on shared research and monitoring priorities, as part of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s (CEC) 2015–2016 project Monarch Butterfly Flyway: Communication, Participatory Conservation, and Education Programs throughout the Migratory Route. Following its inaugural meeting, a subset of the TMCSP convened in Toluca, Mexico (March 2017) to discuss shared monitoring priorities. Workshop goals included: 1) identifying trinational monitoring priorities, 2) discussing inventory and monitoring protocols for monarch butterfly life stages, and monarch habitat, and 3) determining monitoring action plans across North America. This report compiles products of the workshop, including trinational monitoring priorities, an inventory of