Every November, one of nature’s most breathtaking spectacles unfolds in Michoacán, Mexico, as millions of monarch butterflies settle in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve after a grueling 4,000-kilometer journey from the U.S. and Canada. But their winter sanctuary, the oyamel fir forests, is under threat from climate change, and a groundbreaking scientific experiment may be their only hope.
The oyamel firs provide the perfect microclimate for these migrating monarchs, buffering them from extreme temperatures and rain. “During the day, under the shade of the oyamel, the environment stays 5 degrees Celsius cooler than outside. At night, it’s 5 degrees warmer,” explains Cuauhtémoc Sáenz Romero, a professor at Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo to Wired. This delicate balance is crucial for the butterflies to conserve energy for their spring migration.
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Unfortunately, climate change is forcing the oyamel firs to retreat to higher, cooler altitudes, and nature can’t move them fast enough. “The forest is shifting, but not at the speed it needs to,” Sáenz Romero says. Left unchecked, models predict that suitable conditions for these trees could vanish from their current habitat by 2090.
Photographer Sylvain Cordier/Getty Images
Sáenz Romero has spent over 20 years conserving Michoacán’s forests, and since 2017, he’s been leading an ambitious experiment: creating new oyamel habitats at higher altitudes in the Nevado de Toluca, a nearby protected area. Working with the indigenous Matlatzinca community, his team has planted nearly 1,000 fir seedlings across various altitudes, from 3,400 to 4,000 meters. The hope? To build a climate-resilient winter home for the monarchs.
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This project combines cutting-edge environmental science with centuries of indigenous ecological knowledge. “They have a great sense of attachment to their territory and a lot of ecological knowledge,” Sáenz Romero says. This collaboration has been key to identifying optimal planting sites and ensuring the survival of the seedlings, which are grown in nurseries and transplanted under shrubs to shield them from extreme weather.
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Recent signs suggest monarchs are already seeking cooler refuges, with new colonies forming in Nevado de Toluca. While they haven’t yet discovered the experimental sites, Sáenz Romero is optimistic. “Hopefully, once our seedlings have grown, they will discover our site as well.”
Image Courtesy of Flickr
Not everyone agrees with this approach—some conservationists argue that relocating forests is too radical. But Sáenz Romero believes human intervention is now essential. “After the scale of disruption we’re observing, we have to evolve our idea of conservation.”
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For the monarchs to survive, Sáenz Romero says, “we need human intervention, and we need to experiment.” With science and community collaboration, the monarchs might just find a future home in the clouds.
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13 responses to “Climate Change Is Killing Monarch Butterflies—Can Science Save Them?”
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