Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU), Rocky Mountain CESU

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The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research on refining our understanding of the amounts and types of land cover change in monarch butterfly migratory habitat in Mexico. The Eastern population of monarch butterflies has experienced declines over the last two decades. A leading hypothesis for the decline is the loss of breeding habitats in the central US. However, others have suggested declines in habitat that supports both northward and southward migration in Mexico and Texas may be impacting the population. Analysis of land cover change in the central US exist, and USGS is currently working on a change analysis for Texas. However, a similar analysis in Mexico does not exist and is needed to understand the rates and types of land change taking place across the entire migratory range of the eastern monarch butterfly population. Remotely sensed data products for Mexico differ from those available in the US and an assessment of what data are available and how they can be used to address a change analysis of monarch migratory habitat in Mexico may be required.

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