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Response to Davis: choosing relevant evidence to assess monarch population trends
Author(s) -
BROWER LINCOLN P.,
TAYLOR ORLEY R.,
WILLIAMS ERNEST H.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
insect conservation and diversity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1752-4598
pISSN - 1752-458X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-4598.2011.00176.x
Subject(s) - census , population , geography , ecology , abundance (ecology) , habitat , biology , demography , sociology
. 1. We recently reported in this journal that the abundance of the migratory population of monarch butterflies is declining (Brower et al. , 2011). Davis (Davis, 2011) subsequently challenged our conclusion. 2. Here, we provide further information about the increasing loss of larval habitat and how it may be contributing to the decline. 3. We also point out that Davis’s census data were obtained from peripheral monarch populations minimally influenced by the changes in agriculture and development that have affected the larger Midwestern monarch population. Therefore, the data cited by Davis are not representative of the overall monarch population.