Diane Debinski
Montana State University, MT·Ecology & Evolution
Butterflies and other beneficial insects are declining across the United States. It is unclear, however, whether the declines are widespread, or whether they share the same causes.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Earth & Environmental Science
Computer Science
- Topics
butterflies
Lepidoptera
insect decline
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2030
What they work on
- Test whether host-plant and nectar availability interact with drivers of aridification, such as snow cover and temperature, to explain long-term butterfly occurrence trends in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Great Basin.
- Determine whether butterfly trends are linked to traits such as host-plant type, adult nectar feeding and voltinism (generations per year), using legacy and new field survey data.
- Test whether perennial herbs and woody plants in montane meadows, marshes and riparian zones are changing in abundance with aridification, and whether these trends hold across the sagebrush biome.
- Build and test artificial intelligence (AI) models of snow cover, plant growing seasons and the extent of water-dependent plant communities, using remotely sensed data.
More about the research
In the western United States, aridification, a long-term shift to a drier climate, is changing snow cover, temperatures and the timing and length of growing seasons. These changes could especially affect wet habitats in dry landscapes: mountain meadows, marshes and riparian zones along streams. These habitats support both plants and the butterflies that depend on them.
Why it matters
Butterflies and other beneficial insects are declining, and the western U.S. is getting drier. By showing which butterfly and plant species are most vulnerable, and why, this work could help government agencies manage public lands and wet habitats across the sagebrush biome. It could also help predict how these communities will change.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Angela Smilanich
University of Nevada-Reno, NV·Ecology & Evolution
Rear caterpillars of five widespread butterfly species from populations across different biomes under temperatures mimicking past, current and future climates, measuring development rate and survival.
Sydne Record
University of Maine, ME·Ecology & Evolution
Develop machine learning algorithms that automatically measure body traits of NEON beetle specimens from images, and test how well they work across different image types.
Troy Ocheltree
Colorado State University-Fort Collins, CO·Plant Science & Agriculture
Identify the networks of linked physiological traits that produce different drought-coping strategies in grasses, using a set of species that spans the entire grass family (Poaceae).
The school
Montana State University: 15 labs on PI Pages, $258M a year on research, 85 research doctorates a year.
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