The butterfly fauna of lowland Northern California has exhibited a marked decline in recent years that previous studies have attributed in part to altered climatic conditions and changes in land use. Here, we ask if a shift in insecticide use towards neonicotinoids is associated with butterfly declines at four sites in the region that have been monitored for four decades. A negative association between butterfly populations and increasing neonicotinoid application is detectable while controlling for land use and other factors, and appears to be more severe for smaller-bodied species. These results suggest that neonicotinoids could influence non-target insect populations occurring in proximity to application locations, and highlights the need for mechanistic work to complement long-term observational data.
CITATION STYLE
Forister, M. L., Cousens, B., Harrison, J. G., Anderson, K., Thorne, J. H., Waetjen, D., … Shapiro, A. M. (2016). Increasing neonicotinoid use and the declining butterfly fauna of lowland California. Biology Letters, 12(8). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0475
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