Extent of Dakota skipper, Hesperia dacotae, distribution in Southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract

The Dakota skipper, Hesperia dacotae, (Hesperiidae) is an at-risk Lepidoptera species, limited in Canada to native mesic mixed-grass prairie habitat in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Due to declines in the native mesic mixed-grass prairie the Dakota skipper population is threatened by loss of habitat. Currently, there is little knowledge about Dakota skipper and the availability and distribution of suitable habitat within Saskatchewan. Our objective was to map potential Dakota skipper habitat using a Generalized Linear Model (GLM) based species distribution model with climate, soil, and landscape predictor variables. Potential Dakota skipper habitat was found broadly in the mesic mixed-grass prairie region, however there is only ~217 km 2 of potential habitat (probability of occurrence 0.7-1). Locations with high probability of occurrence had soils with a significantly higher soil ammonium (NH + 4) and silt content than low probability locations. While the Dakota skipper is broadly distributed in native mesic mixed-grass prairie of southeastern Saskatchewan, environmental constraints likely restrict this species to a limited proportion of the intact native prairie. Implications for insect conservation: Mapping landscape-level species distributions will assist in the development of conservation and management plans for the Dakota skipper in southeastern Saskatchewan including targeted surveys for unknown populations in areas of high potential, identification of potential reintroduction sites, and selection of lands for conservation.

A Model-Based Assessment for the Ability of National Nature Reserves to Conserve the Picea Species in China under Predicted Climate Conditions

“…Habitat suitability results were expressed in probability, ranging from 0-1 [65]. Using the "Reclassify" tool of ArcMap 10.3, the obtained probability results were divided into two levels, of which 0-0.7 was inappropriate and 0.7-1 was appropriate and high potential [66,67].…”

Dakota skipper distribution model for North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota aids conservation planning under changing climate scenarios

“…To address the uncertainty with the distribution of the Dakota skipper, and subsequently target conservation for this species, several efforts have been conducted to model potential Dakota skipper habitat in the United States and Canada. These modeling efforts largely focused on soil types and have been constrained by factors such as small sample sizes, limited types of environmental predictor variables, or small geographic modeling extents (Post van der Burg et al, 2020;Seidle et al, 2020;Dearborn et al, 2022).…”

Comparing Two Species Distribution Models Using Satellite Only and Ready-Made Environmental Variables for the Dakota Skipper (Hesperia dacotae), Interlake Region of Manitoba, Canada

“…Four recent SDMs have been created for the Dakota skipper, however, all four used a mixture of common and satellite imagery derived environmental variables (Table 1). Three of the studies were situated in regions outside of the Manitoba Interlake area (Post van der Burg et al 2020;Seidle et al 2020;Barnes et al 2024). The study by Seidle et al (2020) was created for a region in south-western Saskatchewan and the study by Barnes et al (2024) Post van der Burg et al (2020) was applied to three and four US states, respectively.…”

“…Three of the studies were situated in regions outside of the Manitoba Interlake area (Post van der Burg et al 2020;Seidle et al 2020;Barnes et al 2024). The study by Seidle et al (2020) was created for a region in south-western Saskatchewan and the study by Barnes et al (2024) Post van der Burg et al (2020) was applied to three and four US states, respectively. In both cases the habitat is likely substantially different than that found in the Interlake area of Manitoba and therefore they cannot be directly comparable.…”

“…Past Dakota skipper research in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the northern U.S. has generally focused on describing local biotic and abiotic site characteristics (Dana 1991;Rigney 2013;Seidle et al 2018) as well as some preliminary SDM studies to determine potential habitat range of Dakota skipper and Poweshiek skipperling, Oarisma poweshiek (Westwood et al 2019;Post van der Burg et al 2020;Seidle et al 2020;Dearborn et al 2022) including additional modelling response to climate change (Barnes et al 2024).…”