The Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden sends this information as posted below:
A new research paper from Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden Conservation Scientist Dr. Emily Geest points to fire management of grasslands as key to preserving some butterfly populations.
Published in the journal Grassland Research, the paper looks at tallgrass prairie, one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. More than 90 percent of prairies in North America have been lost since 1800 leading to catastrophic decline in grassland dependent butterfly populations. To retain the remaining populations in the southern Great Plains, including Oklahoma, careful management of the remaining grasslands is necessary.
Grasslands evolved alongside fire and their ecology depends on periodic disturbances to continue to exist. Without disturbance, prairies gradually transition into woodlands. However, since European settlement, fire has become largely suppressed, and cattle have replaced bison as the dominant grazing mammals in the Great Plains. The implications of these changes for butterfly conservation are not well understood. This paper looks at prescribed fire by itself and in combination with other management practices to better understand how levels of disturbance impact butterfly populations. Read the paper in its entirety here.
“Butterflies are an important piece of prairies. They are pollinators, they are the base of the food web, and they serve as ecosystem indicators to allow us to better understand the health of these systems,” said Dr. Geest. “Fire is a key piece to creating the habitat butterflies are reliant on in prairies”
Controlled burns can be used solo or in conjunction with a number of other strategies, including haying and grazing by cows and bison.
“Butterflies, especially those with specialized habitat needs like fritillaries, respond differently to these practices than butterflies that have more generalized needs,” she said. “Grassland areas managed with fire alone supported the most unique mix of butterfly species compared to other management styles.”
That is because fire alone causes less habitat disturbance compared to other practices, which suggests it might be the best option in areas with sensitive butterfly species present.
To better compare different management strategies, an equation was modified to fit the needs of the Southern Great Plains. Land Use Intensity equations, which can be used to measure disturbance, were developed in Europe, but did not account for management typical in the Southern Great Plains. This study modified the equation to make it better suited for land managers in this region.
“The equation is an excellent starting point, because once you add management components like grazing, fire, and haying, it can be difficult to measure and compare those effects across a region,” Dr. Geest said. “This allows us the chance to better compare these practices.”
As an accredited botanical garden, the OKC Zoo is dedicated to creating habitat for pollinators. More than 60 species of butterflies have been documented in gardens throughout the park.
The research paper was funded through a grant from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) and done in collaboration with ODWC, Oklahoma State University, and The Nature Conservancy.
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