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Arizona Daily Star

Local opinion: U of A experts on saving migratory species

BY Jonathan Derbridge, Cooper Gottfried,
Charles Chester and Laura López Hoffman

April 13, 2024

Our research group, EMIGRA, investigates how human governance affects migratory species in North America. One of the complexities of this work is that migratory species may require conservation efforts in one spot yet benefit humans economically in a distant place.

Above: image from the trailer for the 2023 movie, Migration, by Universal Pictures and Illumination

Common Dreams

Stop the Deforestation Express

BY Rodrigo Medellin, Juanita Sundberg, and Charles C. Chester
July 8, 2023

The U.S. should speak up against the Mayan Train that is harming workers, Indigenous communities, and biodiversity in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

NEWS

Bat sightings on the rise in southern Arizona

News 13 Tucson
Jun. 22, 2023

Summer’s here and the number of bat sightings in southern Arizona are on the rise. There are several months left to see them along the Rillito River, a popular spot for bat watching especially during the summer months.

The Daily Beast

Why Economic Justice for Indigenous Groups Is Vital
to Saving Endangered Species

BY Charles C. Chester, Laura López-Hoffman, and Juanita Sundberg
May. 14, 2023

We need to start realizing that the goals behind conservation and equity for vulnerable populations are intertwined.

Monarch butterflies spend the warm months migrating throughout the United States and Canada, before congregating in their mountain forest habitat in central Mexico to wait out the North American winter. While citizens of all three countries treasure the monarch’s presence, some of the highest costs of conservation have been “paid” only in Mexico.

Mount Saint Vincent University News

MSVU professor and students are part of international research team studying ecological issues facing migratory species

BY MSVU staff
April 2023

The project is connecting MSVU students with exceptional research and professional development opportunity.

Three students and a professor from MSVU recently embarked on a unique research trip to Tucson, Arizona, as part of an international tri-national interdisciplinary research project studying the connections between humans, nature, and migratory species.

Ana Nobre, Alyssa Babb, and Columba Gonzalez-Duarte

At a time when climate change and environmental change threaten the survival of migratory species, this project seeks to build a greater understanding of these systems toward conservation-focused interventions.

The Los Angeles Times

The parallel struggles of human and monarch migration

BY COLUMBA GONZALEZ-DUARTE
AUG. 19, 2022

In July, the monarch butterfly was added by the International Union for Conservation of Nature to its red list of threatened species, a recognition that the insect’s continuing decline could lead to extinction.

Butterflies land on branches at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., in November. (Nic Coury / Associated Press)

University of Arizona News

Summer is bat-watching season in Tucson: Here's what you should know.

Two University of Arizona experts talk about why Southern Arizona is a mecca for bats, share tips on how to best observe them, and clear up myths surrounding these fascinating creatures of the night.

Science writer Daniel Stolte tries to capture video of bats getting ready to fly out from the bridge on North Campbell Ave over the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona.

Slide Presentation

Today I’d like to present a paper that colleagues and I published last year, and I encourage you to read the paper for detailed explanations about our approach. I’d like to acknowledge my coauthors who helped develop the paper along with our funding and institutions.

As you probably know, many migratory species have shown declines over the past several decades, especially those associated with agricultural landscapes such as the monarch butterfly and northern pintail.

Monarch graph shows the Index of annual abundance of overwintering monarch butterflies in Mexico, measured as total area occupied by colonies in December. The dashed line is the trend and the gray shading is the 95% confidence interval.
Pintail graph Continental BPOP trend, dashed line is avg 1955-2015 Lower equilibrium since mid-1980’s Theory is effects of intensive agriculture on nesting success Monarch photo: LyWashu, CC BY-SA 3.0 Monarch map: https://www.fws.gov/midwest/news/MonarchCitizenScience.html — As you probably know, many migratory species have shown declines over the past several decades, especially those associated with agricultural landscapes such as the monarch butterfly and northern pintail. Monarch graph shows the Index of annual abundance of overwintering monarch butterflies in Mexico, measured as total area occupied by colonies in December. The dashed line is the trend and the gray shading is the 95% confidence interval. Pintail graph Continental BPOP trend, dashed line is avg 1955-2015 Lower equilibrium since mid-1980’s Theory is effects of intensive agriculture on nesting success Monarch photo: LyWashu, CC BY-SA 3.0 Monarch map: https://www.fws.gov/midwest/news/MonarchCitizenScience.html

These declines have raised two important challenges for understanding and conserving these species. First, the intensification of agriculture has degraded breeding habitats. Second, it is difficult to predict effectiveness of habitat conservation within breeding grounds, because individuals move between countries during their annual cycle and populations are affected by anthropogenic influences such as hunting in non-breeding areas. ________ Decline in biodiversity & related services Difficult to predict effectiveness of regional conservation actions at continental scale

Linking landscape-scale conservation to regional and continental outcomes for a migratory species.
Scientific Reports 10:4968.

Video

See our short film (4:20) about the conservation of ecosystem services from migratory species. This film focuses on pest-control services provided by Mexican free-tailed bats. These bats overwinter in Mexico and females migrate for the summer months to the southwestern US where they gather in large maternity roosts and consume vast quantities of flying insects every night. This natural pest-control service has supported agriculture in the US/Mexico border region for generations.