Every year, millions of monarch butterflies made the migration from northern and central United States, as well as southern Canada to Mexico to overwinter there.
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But recently, researchers are worried that the Mexican forest that serve as the butterfly’s winter habitat is being destroyed by global warming. They decided that the best way to save the butterflies is to save the forest, and to do that, they have to move the forest 1,000 feet up a mountain to a cooler climate range:
The trees, known as “sacred firs” because their conical shape calls to mind hands clasped in prayer, offer a dense canopy that acts as an umbrella for the butterflies that cluster by the thousands on their trunks and branches. The oyamel protects the butterflies from chilly winter rains and creates a microclimate cold enough to keep the butterflies in a state of hibernation but not so frosty as to kill them.
Scientists fear that climate change may kill off these firs altogether. A 2012 research paper coauthored by Saenz-Romero and published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management found that the area suitable for the oyamel is likely to diminish by 96% by 2090, and disappear completely within the reserve.
The region is warming at such an accelerated pace that the trees won’t be able to adapt, scientists say, and will need help migrating to areas where the climate is predicted to be suitable for them in future years.
Kate Linthicum of the Los Angeles Times has the rest of the story.
Image: Steve Cory/Wikimedia
Source: neatorama