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

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Outline Protocol and Initial Findings Extensions Outcomes

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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

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MLMP Volunteers Range in age from 20-85 (77% monitor with children) Variety of occupations (from teacher to aircraft inspector) More than half participate for > 1 year

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MLMP Training www.mlmp.org

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Past and Current Monitoring Locations as of Summer 2002

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

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

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Egg densities in the Upper Midwest

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Spatial Patterns

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

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

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Upper Midwest Survival 2799 179 1223 10951 2423 1997* 2799 (# of eggs in blue) 3015 5539 10988 1223 180

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Photo by Anurag Agrawal

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Tachinid Fly Parasitism

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MN and WI Survival

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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

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MLMP Extensions

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Risk Assessment: Bt Corn and Monarchs Losey et al. 1999 Consuming Bt corn pollen can kill monarch larvae Milkweed is a common agricultural weed

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

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

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Round-up Ready TM Crops

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Documenting Impacts of Environmental Perturbations January 2002 Mexico Storm

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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

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MLMP Outcomes

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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

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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

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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