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Digital Data for Land and climate change in Mexico and Texas reveals small effects on migratory habitat of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus).

Metadata Updated: January 22, 2026

The decline of the iconic monarch butterfly in North America has motivated research on the impacts of land use and land cover (LULC) change and climate variability on monarch habitat and population dynamics. We investigated spring and fall trends in LULC, milkweed and nectar resources over a 20-year period, and ~30 years of climate variables in Mexico and Texas, a key region supporting spring and fall migration during monarchs annual life cycle. We estimated a 2.9% decline in milkweed in Texas, but little to no change in Mexico. Fall and spring nectar resources declined <1% in both countries. Vegetation greenness increased in both the fall and spring in Mexico while the other climate variables, for both countries, did not. Monarch habitat in Mexico and Texas appears relatively more intact than in other parts of their range, particularly the midwestern agricultural landscapes of the US. Given the relatively modest observed changes, it seems unlikely that habitat loss (quantity and quality) in Mexico and Texas has caused large declines in population size or survival during migration.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date January 13, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 22, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 13, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 22, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_65c64c7fd34ef4b119cb28d8
Data Last Modified 2024-03-28T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Datagov Dedupe Retained 20260121204831
Harvest Object Id 8588b147-440f-48c7-add2-dbb2993a70b5
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -104.032136, 17.899872, -104.032136, 35.620491, -93.508046, 35.620491, -93.508046, 17.899872, -104.032136, 17.899872}
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 760f4ae87089424f6eac52c12c37256970cccbdc0fdd3a988454112883a38db6
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -104.032136, 17.899872, -104.032136, 35.620491, -93.508046, 35.620491, -93.508046, 17.899872, -104.032136, 17.899872}

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