Habitat Variables, Mammal Interactions, and Recovery
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Biology ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-1-2010 Habitat variables, mammal interactions, and recovery approaches important to a rare, New Mexican butterfly, Euphydryas anicia cloudcrofti (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) Julie McIntyre Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/biol_etds Recommended Citation McIntyre, Julie. "Habitat variables, mammal interactions, and recovery approaches important to a rare, New Mexican butterfly, Euphydryas anicia cloudcrofti (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)." (2010). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/biol_etds/78 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Biology ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HABITAT VARIABLES, MAMMAL INTERACTIONS, AND RECOVERY APPROACHES IMPORTANT TO A RARE, NEW MEXICAN BUTTERFLY, EUPHYDRYAS ANICIA CLOUDCROFTI (LEPIDOPTERA: NYMPHALIDAE) BY JULIE LINCOLN MCINTYRE B.A., Environmental Science, University of Virginia, 1989 B.A., Religious Studies, University of Virginia, 1989 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Biology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2010 DEDICATION In memory of my father, William Reynolds McIntyre, who gracefully imparted his sense of curiosity and wonder of the natural world. This work is dedicated to my children, Eva Lillian Lowry and Shayden Liam Lowry, with the hope that they continue to experience the magic of nature and believe in their own abilities to seek solutions for planetary healing. And to the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly and all wild beings across the globe, to engender deeper understanding and respect for all life forms and wild places. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am incredibly grateful to my co-advisors, Astrid Kodric-Brown and Dave Lightfoot, for their willingness to work with me, interest in my research, natural openness about all ideas, and mentoring both as excellent ecologists and as human beings. Astrid’s ready smile along with her unique angles and questions gave me fresh perspectives on approaching complex ecological interactions, which continue to guide me. Dave’s passion for insects and conservation and amazing abilities as a field naturalist set a model for bridging academia and nature to which I will continually aspire. Sandy Brantley, always enthusiastic, supportive, and quick to provide great feedback, shared kindness and laughs woven with scientific expertise at the precise moments when most needed, and for this I am most thankful. Tim Lowrey and Julie Coonrod offered guidance and, at all times, good humor, and I appreciate their cheerful involvement with my committee. Collectively, all committee members exhibited great patience and generosity with their time and advice throughout the entire process of creating this dissertation. I appreciate the great generosity of the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens and Las Lunas Plant Materials Center in donating Penstemon neomexicanus plants to transplant for the experimental field study. Providing larvae with additional host plants would not have been possible without their willingness to donate these carefully cultivated plants. The staff was kind, efficient, and willing to entrust their plants to me, and I thank the staff of these important and beneficial organizations. Field helpers, Mark Cedar Love-Williamson, Ben Zimmerman, Josh Jones, Isabel Constable, Angela England, Alicia Paz, and Charlie Jackson, collected valuable data, appreciated the beauty of the study area, and brought a spirit of devoted work ethic and fun while working and camping in the Sacramento Mountains; I very much appreciate their efforts and companionship. Insect experts Steve Cary, Dick Fagerlund, and Dick Holland, along with Dave Lightfoot and Sandy Brantley, taught me how to identify insects in the lab and field and freely shared the wide range of their expertise for which I am grateful. At UNM, Ana Davidson’s energetic approach to ecology was contagious, and I thank you, Ana, for demonstrating how to accomplish feats with joy, applicability, and interesting science. I iv thank Phil Tonne for his gentle, humorous encouragement and solutions to random GIS questions and map finessing. Annette Evangelisti and Chuck Hayes were instrumental in maintaining daily sanity during the final throes of “dissing” and their refreshing energy will be remembered. The help of Geoff Carpenter, Alea Trafton, and Kina Murphy in reviewing documents was greatly appreciated, and I’m happy to repay the favors any time. I have been tremendously fortunate in having an excellent selection of considerate and interesting office mates at UNM, and to you all, I thank you for your sharing and tolerance while we have traversed this grad school journey together. My work associates, Wendy Brown, Brady McGee, Susan Jacobsen, Eric Hein, Sarah Rinkevich, Catherine Liller, Steve Chambers, Nancy Riley, and Stuart Leon, offered wisdom, flexibility, and good company with polished professionalism. I have learned much from each of these individuals, and am honored to work with such dedicated, hopeful, and intelligent folks. I continue to profoundly admire their efforts to conserve endangered species. I am most grateful to my family, Marc, Eva, Shayden, and Helen Lowry, along with Targ Matteucci, Mary Lee McIntyre, Andy McIntyre, Elise Athens, and Terry Lowry, for their support of my endeavors in so many forms. Marc, Helen, Targ, Mary Lee, Terry, and my inspiring community of visionary friends, I thank you for your help in taking care of my children so that I could accomplish tasks relating to this degree. To Eva and Shayden, thank you for seeing things I would have missed in the field and in life. To Marc, I am indebted for your endurance and love to see this through to the end where new beginnings are forming. Finally, I send gratitude to the butterflies, pollinators, and plants, the Spirit of the Sacramento Mountains, and the stars above Zinker Canyon. v HABITAT VARIABLES, MAMMAL INTERACTIONS, AND RECOVERY APPROACHES IMPORTANT TO A RARE, NEW MEXICAN BUTTERFLY, EUPHYDRYAS ANICIA CLOUDCROFTI (LEPIDOPTERA: NYMPHALIDAE) BY JULIE LINCOLN MCINTYRE ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Biology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2010 HABITAT VARIABLES, MAMMAL INTERACTIONS, AND RECOVERY APPROACHES IMPORTANT TO A RARE, NEW MEXICAN BUTTERFLY, EUPHYDRYAS ANICIA CLOUDCROFTI (LEPIDOPTERA: NYMPHALIDAE) JULIE LINCOLN MCINTYRE B.A., Environmental Science, University of Virginia, 1989 B.A., Religious Studies, University of Virginia, 1989 Ph.D., Biology, The University of New Mexico, 2010 ABSTRACT Impacts of habitat features, local mammals, and experimental host plant transplants on the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas anicia cloudcrofti) were addressed in this research. Comprised of three separate studies, this work investigated the butterfly’s ecology from different angles designed to contribute to more effective conservation for this rare species. In the first study, abiotic and biotic habitat variables examined at four spatial scales, were found to be different between occupied and unoccupied habitat. Each scale reflected similar patterns, with connectivity, host plant resource concentration, and plant structural diversity preferred by the butterfly at the scale of the landscape, meadow, host plant patch, and natal host plants. High habitat quality, low isolation, broad hostplant patch area, and high host plant patch density were associated with occupied habitats. Despite being far more vagile than larvae, adults were tightly associated with the distribution of the preferred nectar source within a meadow, Helenium hoopseii, suggesting their specialized use of this one plant species, in time and space. The second study investigated interactions of the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas anicia cloudcrofti) and its primary host plant Penstemon neomexicanus, with two other common factors in their environment: soil vii disturbance by the pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) and grazing by Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni). These interactions appeared to be impacting the abundance of egg masses and larval tents of the butterfly over a range of spatial scales and probably temporal scales as well. Associations between the butterfly, gopher soil disturbance, and elk grazing were significant during one year, but not the next, revealing the dynamic nature of this system. The strongest and most consistent relationship discovered was between elk grazing on P. neomexicanus plants growing on gopher mounds. To accommodate low population numbers and buffer the butterfly against changes in climate or habitat connectivity on a scale meaningful to highly sensitive pre- diapause larvae, the third study tested effects of transplanting additional host plants, adjacent to occupied host plants in the field over one pre-diapause season. Results showed that pre-diapause butterfly larvae can benefit from an increase in nearby host plants. Larval abundance and length responded most favorably to large penstemon host plants with broad plant and stem diameters, many leaves, and tall heights, and those growing in a patch. If such rare butterfly species are to persist,