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Aphids And Monarchs | Earth Wise

September 15, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Aphids are negatively impacting monarch butterfly populations

Last year, the monarch butterfly was officially designated as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  Estimates are that the overall population of the species has dropped between 20% and 90% over the past several decades. 

The migratory western population of monarchs is at the greatest risk of extinction, having declined by as much as 99.9% between the 1980s and 2021.  Legal and illegal logging and deforestation to make space for agriculture and urban development has destroyed much of the butterflies’ winter shelter in Mexico and California and pesticides and herbicides throughout the butterflies’ range kills both the butterflies and the milkweed that their larvae feed on.

A new study by the University of Florida has found that aphids feeding on the milkweed that grows across the southern portions of the US causes the butterflies to lay fewer eggs on the plants and the caterpillars developing on those plants were slower to mature.  The study showed that monarch laid three times as many eggs on aphid-free plants as they did on aphid-infested plants.

For years, there have been efforts to plant milkweed in urban areas to support monarch populations.  However, aphids and other insect pests often reach high densities on plants in urban settings. 

The researchers are advising home gardeners in the southern U.S. who want to conserve monarch butterflies to make use of safe techniques to limit aphid populations such as insecticidal soap.  This may not always be an option and the researchers are investigating other options to keep aphids at low levels that aren’t harmful to monarchs.

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Aphids make tropical milkweed less inviting to monarch butterflies, study finds

Photo, posted October 12, 2018, courtesy of Renee Grayson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fighting Climate Change With Trees

August 20, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

We cut down forests all around the world for a myriad of reasons, including livestock grazing, agricultural production, timber, and urban development.  But what if we stopped cutting down forests for these things and additionally grew new forests on vacant lots and any other available parcels of land on earth?  What impact could this have on our survival? 

For the first time, scientists have quantified what impact this plan could have.  According to a new study by researchers at ETH Zurich – a university that specializes in science, technology, and engineering – the planet could support nearly 2.5 billion additional acres of forest without shrinking current cities and farms.  When all those acres of forest mature, the trees could store an extra 200 gigatons of carbon.  This reforestation could stave off the most devastating impacts of global climate change. 

Russia could restore the most acres of forest – 373 million acres to be precise – followed by the United States with 255 million acres and Canada with 193 million acres.  Australia, Brazil, and China also have large areas well-suited for forest restoration. 

The average global temperature has risen by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the start of the industrial age with its surge in greenhouse gas emissions.  Temperatures are projected to rise even more in the coming years as the planet continues to warm.   

Trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their roots and branches.  The absorbed carbon becomes part of the soil when trees die and decompose, and it can linger there for millennia depending on things like temperature and soil management.  Trees are critical in the fight against climate change. 

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How trees could save the climate

Photo, posted June 18, 2011, courtesy of K.W. Barrett via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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