Changes in nectar supply: A possible cause of widespread butterfly decline

By M. WallisDeVries, C. V. van Swaay, Calijn Plate. 2012

92 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recent studies have documented declining trends of various groups of flower-visiting insects, even common butterfly species. Causes of these declines are still unclear but the loss of habitat quality across the wider countryside is thought to be a major factor. Nectar supply constitutes one of the main resources determining habitat quality. Yet, data on changes in nectar abundance are lacking. In this study, we provide the first analysis of changes in floral nectar abundance on a national scale and link these data to trends in butterfly species richness and abundance. We used transect data from the Dutch Butterfly Monitoring Scheme to compare two time periods: 1994−1995 and 2007−2008. The results show that butterfly decline can indeed be linked to a substantial decline in overall flower abundance and specific nectar plants, such as thistles. The decline is as severe in reported flower generalists as in flower specialists. We suggest that eutrophication is a main cause of the decline of nectar sources (Current Zoology 58 (3): 384−391, 2012).

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5ed424497a59a574aaf815f20c0d6a883faa8cbd

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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

In Plant Science

Citations in the corpus

Pathways for the effects of increased nitrogen deposition on fauna (2017, background): “WallisDeVries et al. (2012) presented clear correlations between large-scale declines in flower-visiting insects and in flower abundancy, due to changes in vegetation composition, with N deposition as the most probable determining factor in nutrient-poor environments.”
Diversity and trait composition of moths respond to land-use intensification in grasslands: generalists replace specialists (2017, background): “In general, eutrophication decreases the occurrence of diurnal and nocturnal Lepidopteran (Fox et al. 2014; Hodgson et al. 2014; Öckinger et al. 2006b; Van Es et al. 1999; WallisDeVries et al. 2012).”