Butterflies In The City: Landscape Connectivity And Conservation Of Urban Woodland Butterflies.
Lead Research Organisation:
The Open University
Department Name: Faculty of Sci, Tech, Eng & Maths (STEM)
Abstract
The UK is one of the most wildlife depleted nations in the world (NBN, 2019). Britain's landscape has become fragmented, with woodlands and other natural and semi natural habitats declining and becoming isolated through infrastructure development. Natural or semi-natural habitat fragments within urban landscapes may make a significant contribution to biodiversity conservation at local and national scales, but these are by definition patchy and can be isolated. Understanding landscape-scale connectivity within urban areas is important in order to inform management of urban habitats for biodiversity.
Butterflies are key components of UK biodiversity, as highly valued species in their own right, as pollinators, as indicators of trends in other biodiversity and as model organisms for the study of landscape connectivity and metapopulation biology. They have also been popular subjects of study by professionals, skilled amateurs and citizen scientists for decades. They therefore represent an excellent study group for investigations of connectivity in urban landscapes.
Milton Keynes has a patchwork of potentially high quality butterfly habitat within a matrix of an urban landscape. Fragments of ancient woodland, recent plantation and parkland are connected by 'grid road corridors' - mainly wooded strips of 20-100m width that border the main transport arteries of the city. It is an excellent study site for investigations of landscape connectivity.
This project will focus on woodland butterflies, reviewing what is known about their habitat preferences and spatial ecology, identifying key knowledge gaps and carrying out species and site-specific studies to address them. Woodland habitat will be assessed and mapped using a combination of remote-sensed data and field surveys. This information will be synthesised to develop models of landscape connectivity for butterflies within the city that will ultimately be used to develop management recommendations for the critical links between habitat patches.
Methodology:
The project will carry out an assessment of woodland habitats in Milton Keynes that will be used as the basis of maps of habitat suitability for a range of butterfly species. These will then be used to build graph-theoretical models of landscape connectivity for different woodland butterflies. Where knowledge gaps exist in butterfly species movement ecology these will be addressed for a limited number of species with field surveys focused on quantifying movement parameters for individuals. The models will be tested through further field surveys of woodland patches and corridors.
Butterflies are key components of UK biodiversity, as highly valued species in their own right, as pollinators, as indicators of trends in other biodiversity and as model organisms for the study of landscape connectivity and metapopulation biology. They have also been popular subjects of study by professionals, skilled amateurs and citizen scientists for decades. They therefore represent an excellent study group for investigations of connectivity in urban landscapes.
Milton Keynes has a patchwork of potentially high quality butterfly habitat within a matrix of an urban landscape. Fragments of ancient woodland, recent plantation and parkland are connected by 'grid road corridors' - mainly wooded strips of 20-100m width that border the main transport arteries of the city. It is an excellent study site for investigations of landscape connectivity.
This project will focus on woodland butterflies, reviewing what is known about their habitat preferences and spatial ecology, identifying key knowledge gaps and carrying out species and site-specific studies to address them. Woodland habitat will be assessed and mapped using a combination of remote-sensed data and field surveys. This information will be synthesised to develop models of landscape connectivity for butterflies within the city that will ultimately be used to develop management recommendations for the critical links between habitat patches.
Methodology:
The project will carry out an assessment of woodland habitats in Milton Keynes that will be used as the basis of maps of habitat suitability for a range of butterfly species. These will then be used to build graph-theoretical models of landscape connectivity for different woodland butterflies. Where knowledge gaps exist in butterfly species movement ecology these will be addressed for a limited number of species with field surveys focused on quantifying movement parameters for individuals. The models will be tested through further field surveys of woodland patches and corridors.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Willow Neal (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NE/S007350/1 | 30/09/2019 | 29/09/2028 | |||
| 2605099 | Studentship | NE/S007350/1 | 30/09/2021 | 30/05/2025 | Willow Neal |