User:Bfpage/sandbox/Monarch Watch
Monarch Watch
Monarch watch is an education, conservation, and resource organization that promotes the study of monarch butterflies, Monarch butterfly migration, the reestablishment of monarch food plants. It's best known research activities includes the tagging of monarch butterflies for the purpose of studying their migration to the overwintering sites in Mexico. The tagging program involves the participation of citizen scientists.
Monarch Watch has determined that the decline in the eastern population of the monarch butterfly is probably due to the increased planting of corn and soybeans that are round up resistant. Agricultural lands that employ the use of these strains of crops eliminate the growth of milkweed in the fields. The use of these strains of corn and soybeans has increased steadily over the past 17 years.[1]
Monarch watch volunteers have tagged up to 93,231 butterflies per year, although this number varies each year.[2]
- ^ McCord, John W.; Davis, Andrew K. (2010). "Biological Observations of Monarch Butterfly Behavior at a Migratory Stopover Site: Results from a Long term Tagging Study in Coastal South, Carolina". Journal Insect behavior. 23: 405–418. doi:10.1007/s10905-010-9224-x.
- ^ Brower, Lincoln P.; Taylor, Orley R.; Williams, Ernest H. (2012). "Response to Davis: choosing relevant evidence to assess monarch population trends". Insect Conservation and Diversity. Five: 327–329. doi:10.1111/J.1752-4598.2011.00176.x.