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GLOBAL CHANGE ECOLOGY

Complex causes of insect declines

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 5, pages 1334–1335 (2021)Cite this article

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Insects across the globe are facing multiple anthropogenic pressures. A study combining several data streams and advanced modelling helps to unravel the main factors underlying declines in monarch butterfly populations.

Monarch butterflies perform one of the most spectacular events in the insect world — migrating thousands of kilometres across North America, over multiple generations, between their wintering and summer breeding grounds each year. This phenomenon was only fully described in the 1970s, but it is already in danger of being lost. Numbers of monarch butterflies have plummeted over the past decades1,2,3. Declines have been reported at both overwintering and breeding grounds, for both the west and east coast populations. The monarch is one of the most studied and recognizable insect species, but the causes of its decline are controversial. Writing in Nature Ecology & Evolution, Zylstra et al.4 show how integrated modelling can help to quantify the relative importance of the main factors at play.

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Fig. 1

Janet MacFarlane

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Affiliations

  1. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Diana E. Bowler

  2. Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Biodiversity, Jena, Germany

    Diana E. Bowler

  3. Helmholtz-Center for Environmental Research – UFZ, Department Ecosystem Services, Leipzig, Germany

    Diana E. Bowler

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  1. Diana E. Bowler
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Correspondence to Diana E. Bowler.

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Bowler, D.E. Complex causes of insect declines. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 1334–1335 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01508-x

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