Catastrophic Extinction of Population Sources in a Butterfly Metapopulation

Thomas, Chris D.; Singer, Michael C.; Boughton, David A.

doi:10.1086/285966

Cited by 141 publications

(148 citation statements)

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“…Not only could this have an effect on the butterfly fauna by reducing the positive aspect of snow depth, it also has the potential for shifting emergence phenologies. This could create phenological mismatch, or exacerbate mismatch, between butterfly species and resources (Thomas et al 1996, Singer and Parmesan 2010, Boggs and Inouye 2012, possibly leading to further declines.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The persistence of snow in the spring months, and the short flight period at Donner Pass, might explain why we found a negative effect of warmer spring temperatures compared to other studies. Warmer temperatures might reduce snow by melting, and thus make overwintering larvae and pupae more susceptible to bacterial or fungal infection, or disrupt butterfly phenologies (Thomas et al 1996, Singer and Parmesan 2010, Boggs and Inouye 2012.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A hierarchical perspective on the diversity of butterfly species' responses to weather in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Nice

Forister

Gompert

et al. 2014

Ecology

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Abstract. An important and largely unaddressed issue in studies of biotic-abiotic relationships is the extent to which closely related species, or species living in similar habitats, have similar responses to weather. We addressed this by applying a hierarchical, Bayesian analytical framework to a long-term data set for butterflies which allowed us to simultaneously investigate responses of the entire fauna and individual species. A small number of variables had community-level effects. In particular, higher total annual snow depth had a positive effect on butterfly occurrences, while spring minimum temperature and El Nin˜o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) sea-surface variables for April-May had negative standardized coefficients. Our most important finding was that variables with large impacts at the community-level did not necessarily have a consistent response across all species. Species-level responses were much more similar to each other for snow depth compared to the other variables with strong community effects. This variation in species-level responses to weather variables raises important complications for the prediction of biotic responses to shifting climatic conditions. In addition, we found that clear associations with weather can be detected when considering ecologically delimited subsets of the community. For example, resident species and non-ruderal species had a much more unified response to weather variables compared to non-resident species and ruderal species, which suggests local adaptation to climate. These results highlight the complexity of biotic-abiotic interactions and confront that complexity with methodological advances that allow ecologists to understand communities and shifting climates while simultaneously revealing species-specific variation in response to climate.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A hierarchical perspective on the diversity of butterfly species' responses to weather in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Nice

Forister

Gompert

et al. 2014

Ecology

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“…The nature of the genetic and ecological factors that limit the niche breadth of a species in a heterogeneous habitat still remains largely an open question. In this paper, we suggest that host range evolution may be very sensitive to demographic disturbances affecting both population densities and migration patterns in a heterogeneous habitat.The present theoretical study is inspired by the dynamics and rapid evolution of a heterogeneous metapopulation of the checkerspot butterfly, Euphydryas editha Thomas et al 1996;Boughton 1999). Before 1989, larvae of E. editha were found on two host plants.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The present theoretical study is inspired by the dynamics and rapid evolution of a heterogeneous metapopulation of the checkerspot butterfly, Euphydryas editha Thomas et al 1996;Boughton 1999). Before 1989, larvae of E. editha were found on two host plants.…”

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confidence: 99%

When Sources Become Sinks: Migrational Meltdown in Heterogeneous Habitats

2001

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Abstract. We consider the evolution of ecological specialization in a landscape with two discrete habitat types connected by migration, for example, a plant-insect system with two plant hosts. Using a quantitative genetic approach, we study the joint evolution of a quantitative character determining performance in each habitat together with the changes in the population density. We find that specialization on a single habitat evolves with intermediate migration rates, whereas a generalist species evolves with both very low and very large rates of movement between habitats. There is a threshold at which a small increase in the connectivity of the two habitats will result in dramatic decrease in the total population size and the nearly complete loss of use of one of the two habitats through a process of ''migrational meltdown.'' In some situations, equilibria corresponding to a specialist and a generalist species are simultaneously stable. Analysis of our model also shows cases of hysteresis in which small transient changes in the landscape structure or accidental demographic disturbances have irreversible effects on the evolution of specialization. Phytophagous insects feeding on different plant species and parasites exploiting different hosts face conflicting selection pressures due to the heterogeneous nature of their habitats. It is therefore not surprising that the study of such systems has led to so many fruitful insights (Futuyama and Moreno 1988;Jaenike 1990;Via 1991) and raised so many theoretical questions about broad issues, such as the evolution of source-sink dynamics (Pulliam 1988;Holt 1996b) and the evolution of ecological specialization (Levins 1968;Berenbaum 1996;Fry 1996). The nature of the genetic and ecological factors that limit the niche breadth of a species in a heterogeneous habitat still remains largely an open question. In this paper, we suggest that host range evolution may be very sensitive to demographic disturbances affecting both population densities and migration patterns in a heterogeneous habitat.The present theoretical study is inspired by the dynamics and rapid evolution of a heterogeneous metapopulation of the checkerspot butterfly, Euphydryas editha Thomas et al. 1996;Boughton 1999). Before 1989, larvae of E. editha were found on two host plants. Populations on Collinsia torreyi behaved as source populations exporting migrants to pseudo-sink populations on Pedicularis semibarbata. The accidental extinction of populations on Collinsia, due to an unusual summer frost in the early 1990s, was followed by a complete reversal in source-sink dynamics and a dramatic narrowing of the butterfly diet (Boughton 1999). Since the disturbance, local populations have not regained the ability to use their former host, Collinsia. This example suggests that demographic disturbances may play an important role in the evolution of ecological specialization leading to rapid shifts in host use.Several models have explored how the interactions between demography and local adaptation may shape the nic...

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“…The butterflies show regional adaptation to their respective patch network, and, hence, the performance of metapopulations in their "own" network should be relatively little affected. The situation would be different if a new area would be colonized by butterflies adapted to a landscape with a dissimilar plant-species composition or distribution of host plants among the habitat patches (Singer 1994;Singer and Thomas 1996;Thomas et al 1996). Therefore, a more fundamental and mechanistic understanding of the ecological dynamics is obtained, and potentially more powerful predictive models can be constructed, if the colonization effect and other such phenotype or genotype-dependent effects would be included in the ecological models.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction-Colonization Dynamics and Host-Plant Choice in Butterfly Metapopulations

Hanski¹,

Singer²

2001

The American Naturalist

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Species living in highly fragmented landscapes often occur as metapopulations with frequent population turnover. Turnover rate is known to depend on ecological factors, such as population size and connectivity, but it may also be influenced by the phenotypic and genotypic composition of populations. The Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) in Finland uses two host-plant species that vary in their relative abundances among distinct habitat patches (dry meadows) in a large network of ∼1,700 patches. We found no effect of host species use on local extinction. In contrast, population establishment was strongly influenced by the match between the host species composition of an empty habitat patch and the relative host use by larvae in previous years in the habitat patches that were well connected to the target patch. This "colonization effect" could be due to spatially variable plant acceptability or resistance or to spatially variable insect oviposition preference or larval performance. We show that spatial variation in adult oviposition preference occurs at the relevant spatial scale and that the other possible causes of the colonization effect can be discounted. We conclude that the colonization effect is generated by host preference influencing the movement patterns of ovipositing females. Migrant females with dissimilar host preferences have different perceptions of relative patch quality, which influences their likelihood of colonizing patches with particular host composition.Keywords: classical metapopulation, oviposition preference, colonization, spatial dynamics, Melitaea cinxia.Classical metapopulations persist in a balance between local extinctions and the establishment of new local populations at currently empty but suitable habitat patches

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Catastrophic Extinction of Population Sources in a Butterfly Metapopulation

Cited by 141 publications

References 34 publications

A hierarchical perspective on the diversity of butterfly species' responses to weather in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

A hierarchical perspective on the diversity of butterfly species' responses to weather in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

When Sources Become Sinks: Migrational Meltdown in Heterogeneous Habitats

Extinction-Colonization Dynamics and Host-Plant Choice in Butterfly Metapopulations

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