The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project: a University/Citizen Research Initiative

Outline Protocol and Initial Findings Extensions Outcomes

MLMP Protocol Volunteer and Choose a Site  Gardens, parks, roadsides, prairies (need milkweed) Site Description  Location, size, type  Milkweed species and density Weekly Monitoring (2-3 hours)  Estimate monarch densities  Quantify milkweed quality  Estimate parasitism rates  Track weather conditions

MLMP Volunteers Range in age from (77% monitor with children) Variety of occupations (from teacher to aircraft inspector) More than half participate for > 1 year

MLMP Training

Past and Current Monitoring Locations as of Summer 2002

Weekly Monitoring Densities 1999 data from Cindy Petersen and students, Chanhassen, MN

Temporal Patterns Egg and L5 Densities in Upper Midwestern Sites, 1999

Egg densities in the Upper Midwest

Spatial Patterns

Spatial and Temporal Patterns: Monarchs in Southern US 2000 data from Kathy Phelps, Harrisburg, IL

Population Dynamics Total # of 5ths Total # eggs approximate measure of survival from egg to 5 th instar =

Upper Midwest Survival * 2799 (# of eggs in blue)

Photo by Anurag Agrawal

Tachinid Fly Parasitism

MN and WI Survival

Data Quality Issues Incomplete/unusable data  Too few plants  No plant numbers Inaccurate data  No eggs, lots of larvae  Too many eggs  Over-representation of late-instar larvae Training, reviewing hard copies of data, and recognition of “normal” patterns help to address these issues

MLMP Extensions

Risk Assessment: Bt Corn and Monarchs Losey et al – Consuming Bt corn pollen can kill monarch larvae Milkweed is a common agricultural weed

Relative Usage of Habitats: MN/WI Anthesis: 7/19 - 8/7

Corn field in Rosemount, MN Overlap of pollen anthesis and monarch larvae

Round-up Ready TM Crops

Documenting Impacts of Environmental Perturbations January 2002 Mexico Storm

Research Questions Sources of mortality: temporal/spatial variation Tachinid flies: effects of habitat type, presence of other hosts, location and season Host plant choice Changing landscape and ag practices Multi-trophic level interactions

MLMP Outcomes

Key Motivators “My work may help promote monarch conservation” “My work is leading to increased understanding of monarch biology” “I am involved in real scientific research”

Potential Obstacles ~20% of volunteers feel that Monitoring takes too much time Finding a site to monitor is difficult Filling out the forms takes too much time

Scientific Outcomes Much can be learned from basic distribution and abundance data In addition, data can  provide direction for experimental and theoretical research  inform public policy and conservation efforts