Botanical Gardens Are Local Hotspots for Urban Butterflies in Arid Environments

Discussion: Harnessing microbiome-mediated adaptations in insect pollinators to mitigate climate change impact on crop pollination

Insect pollinators, vital for agriculture and biodiversity, face escalating threats from climate change. We argue and explore the pivotal role of the microbiomes in shaping adaptations of insect pollinator resilience amid climate-induced challenges (climate change and habitat alteration). Examining diverse taxonomic groups, we unravel the interplay between insect physiology, microbiomes, and adaptive mechanisms. Climate-driven alterations in microbiomes impact insect health, behavior, and plant interactions, posing significant effects on agricultural ecosystems. We propose harnessing microbiome-mediated adaptations as a strategic approach to mitigate climate change impacts on crop pollination. Insights into insect-pollinator microbiomes offer transformative avenues for sustainable agriculture, including probiotic interventions (use of EM PROBIOTIC) and microbiome engineering (such as engineering gut bacteria) to induce immune responses and enhanced pollination services. Integrating microbiome insights into conservation practices elucidates strategies for preserving pollinator habitats, optimizing agricultural landscapes, and developing policies to safeguard pollinator health in the face of environmental changes. Finally, we stress interdisciplinary collaboration and the urgency of understanding pollinator microbiome dynamics under climate change in future research.

Low foraging rates drive large insectivorous bats away from urban areas

Urbanization has significant impacts on wildlife and ecosystems and acts as an environmental filter excluding certain species from local ecological communities. Specifically, it may be challenging for some animals to find enough food in urban environments to achieve a positive energy balance. Because urban environments favor small-sized bats with low energy requirements, we hypothesized that common noctules (Nyctalus noctula) acquire food at a slower rate and rely less on conspecifics to find prey in urban than in rural environments due to a low food abundance and predictable distribution of insects in urban environments. To address this, we estimated prey sizes and measured prey capture rates, foraging efforts, and the presence of conspecifics during hunting of 22 common noctule bats equipped with sensor loggers in an urban and rural environment. Even though common noctule bats hunted similar-sized prey in both environments, urban bats captured prey at a lower rate (mean: 2.4 vs. 6.3 prey attacks/min), and a lower total amount of prey (mean: 179 vs. 377 prey attacks/foraging bout) than conspecifics from rural environments. Consequently, the energy expended to capture prey was higher for common noctules in urban than in rural environments. In line with our prediction, urban bats relied less on group hunting, likely because group hunting was unnecessary in an environment where the spatial distribution of prey insects is predictable, for example, in parks or around floodlights. While acknowledging the limitations of a small sample size and low number of spatial replicates, our study suggests that scarce food resources may make urban habitats unfavorable for large bat species with higher energy requirements compared to smaller bat species. In conclusion, a lower food intake may displace larger species from urban areas making habitats with high insect biomass production key for protecting large bat species in urban environments.

Winter Rains Support Butterfly Diversity, but Summer Monsoon Rainfall Drives Post-Monsoon Butterfly Abundance in the Arid Southwest of the US

Butterfly populations are declining worldwide, reflecting our current global biodiversity crisis. Because butterflies are a popular and accurate indicator of insect populations, these declines reflect an even more widespread threat to insects and the food webs upon which they rely. As small ectotherms, insects have a narrow range of habitable conditions; hence, extreme fluctuations and shifts caused by climate change may increase insects' risk of extinction. We evaluated trends of butterfly richness and abundance and their relationship with relevant climate variables in Arizona, U.S.A., using the past 40 years of community science data. We focused on precipitation and temperature as they are known to be influential for insect survival, particularly in arid areas like southwestern U.S.A. We found that preceding winter precipitation is a driver of both spring and summer/fall butterfly richness and spring butterfly abundance. In contrast, summer/fall butterfly abundance was driven by summer monsoon precipitations. The statistically significant declines over the 40-year period were summer/fall butterfly abundance and spring butterfly richness. When controlling for the other variables in the model, there was an average annual 1.81% decline in summer/fall season butterfly abundance and an average annual decline of 2.13 species in the spring season. As climate change continues to negatively impact winter precipitation patterns in this arid region, we anticipate the loss of butterfly species in this region and must consider individual butterfly species trends and additional management and conservation needs.

Community scientists produce open data for understanding insects and climate change

Insect species are responding to human-caused global changes, sparking an urgent need for more conservation and management. Recent publications indicate the speed and scale of these changes to be both fast and large, impacting ecosystem function and human health. Community scientists are contributing vast amounts of data on insect occurrence and abundance to publicly available biodiversity platforms. These data are then used by ecologists to estimate insect diversity and distributions and forecast species' responses to the stressors of the Anthropocene. Yet, challenges remain with taxonomy, species identification, and sampling, some of which can be improved by new tools and approaches. Here we review the open, global community science programs providing the majority of publicly available insect data. We explore the advantages, challenges, and next steps with these large-scale community science ventures, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between professionals and community scientists to jointly address the conservation of insects.

Using Botanical Gardens as Butterfly Gardens: Insights from a Pilot Project in the Gran Sasso and Monti Della Laga National Park (Italy)

Butterfly gardens are green spaces designed as places where butterflies can feed, mate, and rest. Here, we present some perspectives on the possible use of botanical gardens in natural areas as butterfly gardens to promote insect conservation through science dissemination and citizen science activities. We explored this possibility with a project developed in the Botanical Garden of the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park (Italy). We found an extremely high butterfly richness as a result of favorable conditions which can be common in botanical gardens. To promote awareness of insect conservation in the general public and citizen science activities, we have installed within the garden several posters illustrating the butterfly fauna of the park, the species that visitors can easily observe, and the importance of butterfly conservation. Using this case study, we provided reflections and guidelines for the realization and management of butterfly gardens in already existing botanical gardens, especially in natural areas. The realization of butterfly gardens in protected areas to promote awareness of insect conservation, as well as to perform scientific research (namely insect monitoring), may help to ensure that insects will exert a pivotal role in expanding the global network of protected areas under the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.