An alarmingly steep decline in populations across butterfly species has occurred over the past few decades in the United States and shows no sign of reversing, with some species losing more than 40% of their numbers, according to research conducted at Michigan State University recently published in Science.
Some eyebrow-raising findings include 107 species that lost half or more of their populations, and while not every species saw declines, 13 times the number of species did. Monarchs, once thought to be relatively protected due in part to a high level of public interest, have been hit hard as well; some other species in the MSU study lost more than 90% of their populations!
The culripts are hardly surprising: climate change, habitat loss, overuse of insecticides and inappropriate agricultural land use patterns. What is surprising is that no one had performed such a large scale study of butterfly populations in the US before now, and that as a consequence little was known about the severity of their plight beyond (now vindicated) informal observations of their decline over the past 20-odd years.
We need public officials to develop a strategy for mitigating these losses and for everyone to become aware of the enormous scope of life that is at serious risk of irreversible deterioration if business as usual includes continued ignorance or lack of concern with such effects. As one scientist interviewed put it, "The tree of life is being denuded at unprecedented rates." The price cannot be calculated.
While we're at it, I think we all owe a big thank you to Seth Borenstein at the AP for his outstanding coverage of climate and Earth science news over the past couple of years, including bringing news of this kind to a wider audience.
