Butterfly Surveys on the MCSE — Main Cropping System Experiment (MCSE)
Data in the KBS LTER core database may not be published without written permission of the lead investigator or project director Full terms of use
Introducing Prarie strips into an agricultural landscape will affect the presence and abundance of butterflies. The Butterfly presence and abundance are sampled using transect counts using a modified “Pollard Walk” scheme. Transects are walked between 10 am and 4 pm on relatively calm and moderately warm weather days.
This datatable is part of the Butterfly Surveys dataset.
Periodic Butterfly surveys from locations around KBS.
In order to prevent the loss of biodiversity, natural habitat must be incorporated in production landscapes. The LTER has been a leader in understanding how crop management affects ecosystem functions and productivity, however, many questions remain regarding how crop management affects biodiversity and ecosystem services at higher trophic levels. An understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem services is particularly important with the addition of the prairie strips in the LTER MCSE. Butterflies are a group of animals highly valued for pollination ecosystem services and cultural services. We sample butterflies across agricultural treatments, along prairie strips, and in Conservation Lands Experiment (CLE) plots in and around the LTER
Note
| Experiment: | Main Cropping System Experiment (MCSE) |
| Data available from: | June 2019 to September 2021 |
| Dataset: | KBS142 |
| Datatable ID: | KBS142-001.41 |
| Core Areas | Populations |
| Repository link: | |
| Related Tables: | |
| Personnel: |
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| Last Updated | 2023-10-24 |
| Variate | Description | Units |
|---|---|---|
| sample date | Sample Date in the Eastern Time zone | |
| site | site sampled | |
| treatment | field treatment | |
| replicate | field replicate | |
| transect type | type of transect performed | |
| transect length m | length of the transect | |
| transect walking time min | time it took to walk the transect | |
| local start time | local time the transect was started | |
| start temperature c | air temperature at the start of the transect | C |
| cloud cover | estimated cloud cover in percent | |
| wind speed avg kph | average wind speed at the start of the transect measured with a Kestrel wind speed meter | |
| wind speed max kph | maximum wind speed recorded on the Kestrel meter at the start of the transect | |
| field species | preliminary field species identification | |
| family | family of the butterfly species observed | |
| species | species of the butterfly were observed and corrected for errors from the field identification. | |
| common name | The common name of the butterfly observed | |
| comments | comments about the observation |
| Protocols |
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| MCSE/CLE Butterfly Survey |
Data Excerpt
| sample_date | site | treatment | replicate | transect_type | transect_length_m | transect_walking_time_min | local_start_time | start_temperature_c | cloud_cover | wind_speed_avg_kph | wind_speed_max_kph | field_species | family | species | common_name | comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-08-07 | MCSE | T4 | R6 | strip | 100.0 | 8.0 | 23.6 | 0 | 6.6 | 10.0 | Sulphur sp | Pieridae | Colias sp | Sulphur sp | ||
| 2021-07-22 | MCSE | T4 | R6 | strip | 100.0 | 8.0 | 11:04:00 | 40 | Monarch | Nymphalidae | Danaus plexippus | Monarch | ||||
| 2019-06-06 | MCSE | T1 | R2 | walking | 150.0 | 12.0 | 12:50:00 | 21.7 | 90 | 2.8 | 4.9 | Tiger Swallowtail | Papilionidae | Papilio glaucus | Tiger Swallowtail | |
| 2019-06-06 | MCSE | T2 | R2 | walking | 150.0 | 12.0 | 14:16:00 | 25.1 | 40 | 1.6 | 2.8 | Peck's Skipper | Hesperiidae | Polites peckius | Peck's Skipper | |
| 2019-06-06 | MCSE | T2 | R3 | walking | 150.0 | 12.0 | 12:14:00 | 21.5 | 100 | 2.8 | 4.7 | Monarch | Nymphalidae | Danaus plexippus | Monarch | "off transect" |