No Habitat in America is More Severely Fragmented Than The Prairie

By Allan GK on August 04, 2010
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No habitat in America is more severely fragmented than the prairie. Once there were about 25 million uninterrupted acres of northern tall grass prairie. Now barely 1 percent of that remains, about 300 000 acres. Few prairie remnants are large enough to be measured in the thousands of acres; most are in the hundreds or tens. Replica Breitling Watches.

Prairie fragmentation is particularly severe in Iowa, which has a high concentration of roads, and scientists studying the behavior of butterflies here have made some startling observations about the differences among species. Some butterflies - monarchs, sulfurs, red admirals - hop freely across roads and farm fields in search of the next prairie remnant. Others, like viceroys, regal fritillaries and tiger swallowtails, are "habitat sensitive", rarely venturing far from a patch of virgin prairie. But Dr. Diane Dubinsky, a professor of animal ecology at Iowa State University, found that when roadsides were replanted with authentic prairie grasses and flowers, these sensitive species were found in greater abundance and variety than they were on roadsides that had not been replanted. "It shows that these roadsides are actually creating habitat that is benefiting butterfly populations," she said.
Roadside prairies also carry danger, however. The study, by Dr. Dubinsky and a graduate student, Leslie Ries, found a significant risk of butterfly mortality on the windshields of passing cars. So even if butterflies use roadsides as habitat, are they surviving to breed? Or are they lured in by the easy pickings of a roadside prairie only to die without reproducing? Dr. Debinski said her next line of research would include a more detailed study of butterfly road kill.

A roadside prairie is an imperfect corridor. Two thousand miles west of Iowa, another team of scientists has used genetic testing to determine whether a true corridor can connect isolated populations - in this case, voles(5?H,) in the forests of Washington. The scientists - Dr. Stephen Mech, now a professor of biology at the University of Memphis, and Dr. James Hallett of Washington State University - worked in a logging area, where forest fragments were surrounded by clear cuts. They identified pairs of forest fragments connected by corridors of forest. They then captured voles and took genetic samples to determine how closely related the different populations were. They found that voles living within a single patch of forest were very closely related; voles living in separate patches were not closely related; and voles living in patches connected by corridors fell in between.

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