impacts of climate change on the monarch butterfly in ontario; a citizen science-based approach
abstract
the monarch butterfly [danaus plexippus (linnaeus, 1758)], is an iconic
insect native to north america. this butterfly is a migratory insect that flies to an
overwintering site in mexico every year. it is considered an endangered species
in canada due to habitat fragmentation and changing temperatures. this study
utilized the maximum entropy modeling (maxent) in conjunction with a research
grade inaturalist citizen science occurrence data and a government of canada
climate dataset (candcs-u6) to display how the range of the monarch butterfly
will be impacted from climate change in canada. in addition to the historic
conditions the mid-century (2030-2050) and late-century (2080-2100) climate
change scenarios utilized ssp 126, ssp 245 and ssp 585 emissions scenarios
to create the species distribution models. the results showed that under these
climate change scenarios there was northeastwards shift of suitable habitats for
the monarch butterfly. this can have an impact on future monarch habitat
affecting their migration and breeding grounds.
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- undergraduate theses [325]