Mission Blue butterflies are being pushed of the edge by climate change!
The El Nino year that happened in 2015 and 2016 has caused mass amounts of erosion all along California (Khan, 2017). This makes it hard to plant the sole plant that the Mission Blue butterflies needs in order to nest which is the Lupine because the plant lupine needs well fertilized soil in order to thrive. Lupine is the nursery plant of the Mission Blue (San Francisco Forest Alliance, 2017). If the lupine goes extention so does the Mission Blue Butterfly (San Francisco Forest Alliance, 2017).
Devastating Erosion
Fungal Pathogen Attacks
Climate Change has caused a major impact on the decline of Mission Blue Butterflies in the past years. Such as the 1998 outbreak of an unknown fungal pathogen that infected lupine host plants during the El Nino year at Milagra Ridge (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 2016). This not only almost caused the Mission Blue Butterfly population to wipe out but also almost caused the lupine the Mission Blue Butterflies host plant to disappear as well. Frightening enough, in Twin Peaks the fungus remains present in the soil. (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 2016). The potential spread and outbreaks of this pathogen poses a greater threat to small and isolated populations today. (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 2016).
Erosion can cause devastating impacts on the Mission Blue butterflies habitat (image from Soil erosion from a stream, 2013)
Fungal pathogen causes devastating affects on the lupin flowers (image from Edgerton Lab, 2016)
The El nino year that happened in 2015 and 2016 has caused mass amounts of erosion all along California (Khan, 2017). This makes it hard to plant the sole plant that the Mission Blue butterflies needs in order to nest which is the Lupine because the plant lupine needs well fertilized soil in order to thrive. Lupine is the nursery plant of the Mission Blue (San Francisco Forest Alliance, 2017). If the lupine goes extention so does the Mission Blue Butterfly (San Francisco Forest Alliance, 2017).
There are many current issues occuring right now surrounding the Mission Blue butterflies. A big issue right now is the fungal pathogen (necrotrophs) that is killing many of the Lupin. It is great that organizations, like the California Garden Club Inc. non-profit, are planting Lupin in order to allow the butterflies to pollinate and survive, but this doesn’t help if all of the Lupin is dying before it can offer any support to the butterflies. As of right now two of the species of Lupin, the butterflies are dependent on, at twin peaks are infected with the fungal pathogen (Formidable odds against reintroduction of Mission Blue butterfly, 2012).
In order to stop this fungal pathogen chemicals are often added to the plants or the soil. Both Eradicants as well as Protectants are added to put a chemical barrier between the pathogen and the plant (Shurtleff and Kelman, 2016). The problem with adding chemicals to the plants and soils is that it can get into the butterflies systems and kill them as well. In order to kill the fungal pathogen and not hurt the Mission Blue butterfly a different solution needs to occur (Shurtleff and Kelman, 2016).
