“eButterfly” Can Change a Summer Hobby into a Scientific Venture

First Vermont state record for White-M Hairstreak.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – With the arrival of sunny summer days and creation of a new “citizen science” project called eButterfly, every seven-year-old child in the United States and Canada just gained the ability to become a working scientist.

This project, which is now online at e-butterfly.org, is one of the first of its type, and will allow everyone from children to senior citizens to record the butterflies they see or collect, build a virtual butterfly collection, share their sightings with others, and contribute to a scientific record of global change.

It’s free, and all you need to get started are a sharp eye, an interest in nature and a computer.

“We expect global changes in climate and other forces to have serious impacts on butterfly populations around the world,” said Katy Prudic, a research scientist at Oregon State University and founder and director of this project in the U.S. “There are estimates of general declines over 30 percent and localized extinctions.”

Butterflies, an important part of many ecosystems, are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature, population growth, urban sprawl, changes in land and water use, and many other forces, Prudic said. Experts have the ability with powerful computers to interpret these changes and better understand how they are affecting biodiversity – but they don’t have the manpower to gather all the data.

“What we need, and what we believe eButterfly will provide, is thousands of individuals collecting data on butterfly sightings all over the U.S. and Canada, for decades to come,” Prudic said. “This will be a wonderful opportunity for people to get involved in science, appreciate nature and our changing world, and interact with and enjoy biodiversity.”

Because the project taps into the natural interests of children, both rural and urban, who have been chasing butterflies and making collections for centuries, it also offers an entry into the world of science at a very young age, organizers say. Their contributions will be just as valuable as those of an adult hobbyist or working professional, and in the process they can learn about ecology, botany, entomology, geography, computers, data management, global change issues, and other science disciplines.

Slight changes in temperature and other climate factors, experts say, cause changes in butterfly development, migration, eating habits, and other behavior. Butterflies are also a good indicator of the availability of certain plants on which various species depend. And changes are inevitable.

“With the amount of global warming expected in the next 20 years, almost all butterfly species will move somewhat, in location or elevation,” Prudic said. “There may be winners and losers as these changes take place, and some species will struggle more than others. With the data we gather from this project we can monitor those changes and understand the impact on biodiversity.”

The new web site offers a tutorial in how to use it, and simple features such as a map that you can zoom in on, to provide exact latitude and longitudes of butterfly sightings. Experts will review entries for accuracy, and people will be encouraged to take digital photos to help verify their sightings.

Data from new sightings will be combined in this project with historical information from a century of museum collections, organizers say, to provide some historic perspective almost immediately.

This project is being developed in collaboration with the Montreal Space for Life, the University of Ottawa, the University of Alberta, and the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. A system for recording butterfly sightings in Mexico is not yet available, organizers said.

Source: Oregon State University Press release

Invasives plants a problem for birds

VCE biologist Roz Renfrew tours a Vermont field with WCAX News to capture some great footage of Bobolinks, and talk about a looming problem for nesting and migrating birds: invasive plants.


Watch WCAX News Video

Read WCAX news story

Ode to Migration

What does a Wood Thrush, a Monarch butterfly and a Common Green Darner dragonfly have in common? Each spring they all migrate great distances to the Northeast from warm southern climates to breed. We’ve know where thrushes winter in Central America. We’ve known where Monarchs winter in Mexico for nearly 40 years now. But no one knows where the darners spend their winters or how they repopulate the Northeast each spring. We cannot manage and conserve a migratory animal without knowledge of its full annual cycle.

We have joined a group of biologists that are hot on the trail of discovery. VCE is part of the Migratory Dragonfly Partnership, a group of scientists from across the United States, Canada and Mexico trying to better understand dragonfly migration. We are conducting a ground-breaking study using stable-hydrogen isotopes in the wings of dragonflies to trace spring migrants back to their natal origins, unlocking the geographic scale and connectivity of these populations.

Dragonfly migrations have been observed on every continent except Antarctica, with some species performing spectacular long- distance mass movements. The Wandering Glider dragonfly is the global insect long-distance champion, making flights across the Indian Ocean that are twice the distance of Monarch butterfly migrations. In North America, dragonfly migrations are seen annually in late summer and early fall, when thousands to millions of insects move from Canada down to Mexico and Florida and the West Indies, passing along both coasts of the United States and through the Midwest. North America may have as many as eighteen migratory dragonfly species; some engage in annual seasonal migrations, and others are more sporadic migrants.

Spring movements northward by dragonflies are rarely seen, presumably because it occurs over a wider front, over a longer time period, and with fewer individuals than in the fall. We know it happens because dragonflies appear early in spring in places where nymphs have not yet emerged.

The best-known migrant dragonfly in North America is the Common Green Darner. This species appears in early spring at northern latitudes, often seen flying before any local dragonflies have emerged. These are migrants from the south, returning from perhaps Florida, the Caribbean, or Mexico. These individuals breed soon after they arrive in spring, and their nymphs develop quickly in wetlands warmed by the summer sun. Many adults emerge in August, and instead of maturing and breeding at the same site, they begin a southward movement that may take over a month. Their destination is at present unknown but presumably the same areas thought to produce spring migrants. Migrating individuals may breed at their final destination or along the way.

Although migration is common, it is not obligatory for Common Green Darner.  Populations in more northern areas are known to contain both resident and migratory individuals. These phenotypes overlap in space, but exhibit strikingly different annual phenologies that appear to limit temporal overlap in breeding.  Migrants arrive at breeding ponds in March – April and larvae develop into adults in 4-5 months.  Residents begin their breeding cycle roughly one month later in June – July and larvae overwinter in ponds, finally emerging as adults in May-June in the following year.

There is some evidence that air temperature plays a role in the maintenance of this phenotypic variation.  Final-instar larvae of migratory phenotypes reared in the laboratory required a minimum water temperature of 8.7^oC to develop into adults.  In Ontario, resident phenotypes required 20% more accumulated degree-days than migrants to complete development. These thresholds suggest that the relative size of migratory populations could vary with latitudinal gradients and temperature.

Despite the fact that it spans several countries and has been documented since at least the 1880s, North American dragonfly migration is a poorly understood phenomenon. Knowledge about migratory cues, flight pathways, population connectivity and the southern limits of overwintering grounds is still seriously lacking. This knowledge gap prevents development of international management plans and coordinated conservation actions to sustain and protect the migration. None of the dragonfly species known to be migrants in North America is currently endangered, but identifying the habitats on which migrating dragonflies rely for their transcontinental flights may help us better protect these important systems. The threats to wetland habitats, including the effects of global climate disruption, could alter environmental cues for migration, affect larval development and adult emergence times, disrupt migratory corridors, or render overwintering habitat unsuitable.

The overarching goal of this study is to understand the geographic scale and connectivity of dragonfly migration. Remarkably, we can do this by examining the chemistry locked in the dragonfly’s wings.

 Stable-hydrogen isotopes are ideal for inferring natal origins dragonflies because they reflect the latitude at which body tissues were grown and because they are chemically inert once bound.  Vaporizing a tiny piece of a wing in a mass spectrometer gives us the figures we need to determine the latitude of the pond where they grew up. With the help of volunteers in the field and museum collections from the past, we are sampling Common Green Darners from Mexico to Texas, over to Florida and up the eastern half of North America into Canada in a quest to better understand what might be one of North Americas most amazing animal migrations.

You can help us! Join the Dragonfly Pond Watch project or add your dragonfly observation at Odonata Central. Your observations will join thousands of others across North America to help us understand dragonfly migration.

Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge Birding and Lecture

Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge is having an Open House on Saturday May 18th from 730am to 3pm. There will be a bird count beginning at 745am , taking place by boat on the river as well as on all of the walking trails. Lunch will be provided at 1130am, with a presentation by VCE ornithologist Roz Renfrew on Bobolinks that is titled “They go WHERE?” 

The Open House is also the opening event for Art on the Refuge, with paintings and photographs of the natural world, especially in connection with the wildlife, plants and landscapes of the lands on the Refuge. 

The Refuge is at 29 Tabor Road in West Swanton, 6 miles west of Swanton Village. The event is free and open to the public. Please register for the boat bird count at 802-868-4781.

Tongue Wagging

When it comes to tongue wagging, snakes beat even the best gossipers in town. They seem to flick them in, out and about incessantly. Like the ears of a gossiper, the snake’s tongue is searching for information.

Garter snakes have especially colorful tongues – a bright red base and glossy black forked tips. It’s also a highly sensitive chemical collector. With each wag of the tongue airborne molecules are captured for analysis. Even with its mouth closed, the snake can slide its tongue through a space in its upper jaw.

Inside the mouth the forked tips of the tongue deliver the captured molecules to the vomeronasal organ (VNO), also called the Jacobson’s organ, located in the palate of the mouth below the nasal cavity. In mammals the opening to this organ is to the nose, but in snakes it opens to the mouth via small ducts. The tips of the tongue are drawn over narrow grooves in the roof of the mouth, which pass the chemical information into the ducts and up to the VNO.

The VNO has two openings in the palate. The forked tongue may actually allow the snake to have stereo chemo-sensation. If the odor is stronger on one side, the snake can ascertain the direction to the source.

The chemo-sensation of the VNO in snakes is much greater than in most mammals. The next time you see a snake, don’t be alarmed at the tongue wagging. It’s just tasting your scent.

Source: One Square Meter blog - K.P. McFarland

New Study: Climate change will cause widespread global-scale loss of common plants and animals

More than half of common plants and one third of the animals could see a dramatic decline this century due to climate change – according to research from the University of East Anglia.

Research published today in the journal Nature Climate Change looked at 50,000 globally widespread and common species and found that more than one half of the plants and one third of the animals will lose more than half of their climatic range by 2080 if nothing is done to reduce the amount of global warming and slow it down.

This means that geographic ranges of common plants and animals will shrink globally and biodiversity will decline almost everywhere.

Plants, reptiles and particularly amphibians are expected to be at highest risk. Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, Amazonia and Australia would lose the most species of plants and animals. And a major loss of plant species is projected for North Africa, Central Asia and South-eastern Europe.

But acting quickly to mitigate climate change could reduce losses by 60 per cent and buy an additional 40 years for species to adapt. This is because this mitigation would slow and then stop global temperatures from rising by more than two degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial times (1765). Without this mitigation, global temperatures could rise by 4 degrees Celsius by 2100.

The study was led by Dr Rachel Warren from theTyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at UEA. Collaborators include Dr Jeremy VanDerWal at James Cook University in Australia and Dr Jeff Price, from UEA’s school of Environmental Sciences and the Tyndall Centre. The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Dr Warren said: “While there has been much research on the effect of climate change on rare and endangered species, little has been known about how an increase in global temperature will affect more common species.

“This broader issue of potential range loss in widespread species is a serious concern as even small declines in these species can significantly disrupt ecosystems.

“Our research predicts that climate change will greatly reduce the diversity of even very common species found in most parts of the world. This loss of global-scale biodiversity would significantly impoverish the biosphere and the ecosystem services it provides.

“We looked at the effect of rising global temperatures, but other symptoms of climate change such as extreme weather events, pests, and diseases mean that our estimates are probably conservative. Animals in particular may decline more as our predictions will be compounded by a loss of food from plants.

“There will also be a knock-on effect for humans because these species are important for things like water and air purification, flood control, nutrient cycling, and eco-tourism.

"The good news is that our research provides crucial new evidence of how swift action to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gases can prevent the biodiversity loss by reducing the amount of global warming to 2 degrees Celsius rather than 4 degrees. This would also buy time – up to four decades - for plants and animals to adapt to the remaining 2 degrees of climate change.”

The research team quantified the benefits of acting now to mitigate climate change and found that up to 60 per cent of the projected climatic range loss for biodiversity can be avoided.

Dr Warren said: “Prompt and stringent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally would reduce these biodiversity losses by 60 per cent if global emissions peak in 2016, or by 40 per cent if emissions peak in 2030, showing that early action is very beneficial. This will both reduce the amount of climate change and also slow climate change down, making it easier for species and humans to adapt.”

Information on the current distributions of the species used in this research came from the datasets shared online by hundreds of volunteers, scientists and natural history collections through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Co-author Dr Jeff Price, also from UEA’s school of Environmental Studies, said: "Without free and open access to massive amounts of data such as those made available online through GBIF, no individual researcher is able to contact every country, every museum, every scientist holding the data and pull it all together. So this research would not be possible without GBIF and its global community of researchers and volunteers who make their data freely available."

‘Quantifying the benefit of early climate change mitigation in avoiding biodiversity loss’ is published by the journal Nature Climate Change on Sunday May 12, 2013.

Source: University of East Anglia Press Release

Don't Eat Newts

 

It’s hard to miss the bright Red Eft roaming the woods. With the recent rain ending the dry spring, they are now wandering widely. Efts are the terrestrial form of the Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens). Like most amphibians, they have to keep their skin moist so they are most often seen crawling around when the forest is wet. One person recently reported to the Vermont Atlas of LIfe that they found 70 of them on a walk in MIddlebury, Vermont after the recent rains.

In later summer aquatic larvae may transform either directly into the adult aquatic stage or become a terrestrial eft. Bright orange and red, the efts live on land for up to four years. They eat small insects, springtails, snails, and other arthropods. As they grow older they become darker and darker until they begin to look almost like an adult Eastern Newt. They return to the water where they will mate and live the rest of their lives.

Why such an obvious, bright orange color? This is called aposematic coloration, a warning coloration that makes a poisonous animal particularly conspicuous and recognizable to predators. Their tough skin contains high concentrations of tetradotoxin, a neurotoxin and strong emetic.

Tetrodotoxin is the most poisonous non-protein substance known to biologists and similar to that found in pufferfish. It blocks the conduction of nerve signals to muscles causing blood vessels to relax and leading to a sudden drop in blood pressure and then shock. In a nutshell, the toxin blocks the signals from your brain that tell your heart to beat and lungs to breath.

When approached or attacked by a predator, efts may assume the Unken reflex, a defense posture taken by many amphibians to show off the aposematic skin. The eft flexes its mid-section making the head and tail raised and curled over the back in the shape of a horseshoe.

Efts are about ten times more toxic than the aquatic adults. Just a small amount has been shown to kill mice in a mere 10 minutes, but both forms will kill mice if eaten in high enough concentrations.  Blue Jays outright reject them as food. Efts swallowed by toads or snakes have been regurgitated after 30 minutes and recovered rapidly without lasting ill effects. But not all predators are deterred. Raccoons can apparently eat efts without any apparent toxic effects.

A few years ago VCE biologist Steve Faccio brought a duck in for examination. His wife was watching the mallard on their pond when suddenly the duck shuddered and died. Steve and I performed a quick necropsy to see what it might have in its digestive tract. What we found was a surprise. There were dozens of partially digested Eastern Newts. We'll never know for sure what killed the duck, but I sure was suspicious that it chose the wrong meal.

No matter how hungry you are on a hike, whatever you do, don’t eat the newts.

Source: One Square Meter blog, Kent McFarland

Vermont Atlas of LIfe April Photo-observation Winner

April is the start of spring migration for many species and our monthly photo-observation winner was an exciting highlight. Fishnek (aka Tom) presented an action photo of a Rainbow Trout that immediately grabbed the attention of many voters.

See his photo-observation at http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/248747.

Congratulations to Tom. There are still thousands of undocumented Vermont species and locations to be reported. Maybe May is your month to win!

A big thanks to JoAnne Russo, our March winner, for serving as the contest judge for April. Who wants to be our honorable volunteer judge to select four fantastic photo-observations for the May contest?