How Climate Change and other environmental factors affected the Sierra Nevada Blue
Description and Ecology of Organism
The Polyommatus Golgus, otherwise known as the Sierra Nevada Blue butterfly is an herbivorous species that can grow up to 11-16 millimeters. They are relatively small in size but are still crucial to the ecosystem we live in. The male and female are differentiable as the color of their wings are different. The upper-side of the wings on a male is blue and its underside is brownish-grey. For the females, their upper-side wings are colored a dark brown while their underside is a light yellowish brown (Wikipedia).
The Sierra Nevada Blue butterflies reproduce around June-July where the male perches and patrol mating areas waiting for the females to appear. After mating, the females lay its eggs on the leaf they consummated on and the larva hatches by the end of July (Wikipedia).
Butterflies are widespread across the world and can be found everywhere but Antarctica, and there is an estimated of 17,280 different species (Kearney). They play an important part in the ecosystem and the Sierra Nevada Blue butterfly is no different. They are responsible for pollinating plants and helping them reproduce which allows other species that depend on said plants to maintain or even grow their population. The Sierra Nevada is also a low member of the food chain. They provide meals to various animals such as birds, mice, and spiders.
Male Sierra Nevada Blue (Felder)
Female Sierra Nevada Blue (Munguira)
Geographic and Population Changes
Focusing on just the parks in Spain, there are actually two subspecies of the Sierra Nevada Blue butterfly and they live in two different habitats. The first subspecies, golgus, lives in the Sierra Nevada region where the altitude ranges from 2,150 to 2,750 meters. This is because this particular subspecies prefers humid and cold climates over dry and hot ones. The second subspecies, sagratrox, lives in the Sierra Cazorla region with woodlands where the altitude is averaged to be around 2,055 meters. They choose to inhabit the woodland regions because of the abundance of plants and flowers they can pollinate. It has also been reported that as temperature rises from global warming or just summer, both subspecies migrate to higher areas of their geographical locations to avoid the heat (Munguria).
Golgus’s habitat, Sierra Nevada with high altitude and lower temperatures (Woods)
Sagratrox’s habitat, Sierra Cazrola with woodland regions (Paeger)
Although the population of the Sierra Nevada Blue butterflies could not be estimated, there was a research that was conducted in 2012 and 2013 that proves the geological changes mentioned above. This particular research measured the population of this species around a fixed route of 1 kilometer. In 2012, the climate in Sierra Nevada was very dry and recorded higher temperatures than it was in 2013. 2013 was more humid and cold. In 2012, the researchers reported that there were 17 adults/km and in 2013, it was reported that there were 28 adults/km. This shows that this butterfly species is susceptible to the heat and migrate to areas with lower temperatures. Another reason why the 2012 population per km was lower is thought it be because of the survivability rate of the larva in the higher temperature. With exposure to higher temperature, the larva in that year did not survive and lead to a reduction of adults in the area (Munguira).
The distribution of the Sierra Nevada Blue in Spanish Parks (Munguira)
Population distribution from the research in 2012 and 2013 (Munguira)
Listing Date and Type of Listing
The Sierra Nevada Blue butterfly was first listed as a threatened species in 1982’s Annex II of the Bern convention. Although threatened, they are still in the vulnerable phase, meaning there is still time to save this particular species from being endangered (Munguira).
Cause of Listing and Main Threats to its Existence
There are many reasons to why the Sierra Nevada Blue butterfly is being threatened. These reasons vary from climate change, urban development, and trampling.
Climate change being a long-term threat to this species, is extremely urgent to fix. Although it is extremely difficult to negate the effects of climate change, something must be accomplished. If global warming continues, more of the butterflies will migrate to higher altitudes and reduce the range of area where the populations resides. If massive amounts of the Sierra Nevada Blues begin to invade high altitude locations, then there will be an overabundance of one species without enough resources to sustain that population and could potentially lead to being endangered. Another effect that climate change has had on their habitat is an increase in droughts. With more droughts, the area affected will become uninhabitable to the butterflies and will have to move to other suitable land that other species have already occupied (Munguira).
Urban development in the areas where the butterflies reside are also threatening their population. For instance, people decided that it was a good idea to build a ski resort in Sierra Nevada and destroy the Sierra Nevada Blue’s habitats. A ski resort takes up huge areas of land including rivers and low temperature regions. Urban development also leads to many forms of pollution such as water pollution and increase nitrogen emission making the region inhabitable for the butterflies (Munguira).
Trampling of the species’ habitat is done unconsciously by tourists that travel around the area. The effects of trampling have become evident in Sierra Nevada and La Sagra. Instead of walking on paths that had been created for humans, they take alternative shortcuts to get to their destination and as a result, tramples on habitats for the butterflies (Munguira).
Description of Recovery Plans
Because this species has been listed since 1982, they have been legally under protection by parks across the world. Recovery plans have been set for each problem threating the population of the Sierra Nevada Blue (Munguira). Their conservation measures are to prevent the effects of climate change, prevent other urban developments in the area, and to recreate obvious footpaths for tourists to prevent trampling.
Because climate change is a global issue, there isn’t one specific solution for one specific species. Conservation NGOs, environmental agencies, and even other people outside of these organizations, have been suggested to cooperate for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and to have governments across the world understand how pressing it is to reserve the detrimental effects we as humans have caused on other species (Munguira). The priority of this threat is extremely high because if climate change is not alleviated, countless species including the Sierra Nevada Blue will be endangered or even go extinct.
The construction of the ski resort in Sierra Nevada has been extremely harmful to the ecosystem, however, people still wanted to see an expansion of the site. Park authorities were recommended to no longer accept other urban developments such as hotels, car parks, and ski tracks. After this was implemented, the progress to restore the impacted areas by the urban development was still necessary which requires a huge amount of financial support (Munguira). Because obtaining a massive financial support is extremely difficult, this plan has not yet succeeded.
Trampling was an easy threat to solve as all the park authorities needed to do was to shut down the alternative shortcuts and pave a more obvious road throughout Sierra Nevada. It was suggested that this method should expand through all the parks containing endangered species. While paving more roads that visitors can walk on while avoiding trampling on habitats, the park produced and placed information panels across the park to let the tourists understand why shortcuts have been closed (Munguira). With information posted around the park, public awareness about the vulnerable species in the park will increase and will encourage involvement from those interested in conservation.
What can you do
As mentioned earlier, climate change is a global threat that can lead to the extinction of countless species across the world. Something you can do is to reduce your carbon footprint. It does not have to be something huge. If you constantly purchase plastic water bottles, maybe it is time to consider reusing that plastic bottle or buy a metal bottle that can keep your water at the temperature you want while reducing your use of plastic. Imagine if everyone started doing this. The plastic consumption would exponentially decrease, meaning less plastic production, leading to less waste produced, then that means less waste burnt in an incinerator. If there is a very noticeable decrease in waste being sent to incinerators around the world, there would be a massive decline in carbon emission, which would stagnate global warming. This will not only prevent the endangerment of just the Sierra Nevada Blue butterflies but also countless other species threatened by climate change.
Other Resources
To read more about climate change: https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/climate-change/
To read more about species affected by climate change: https://www.earthday.org/how-climate-change-is-threatening-our-species/
To read more about Sierra Nevada Blue and their recovery plan: https://assets.vlinderstichting.nl/docs/8d6acacb-13a7-4a13-b18b-0526ae76cef0.pdf
Works Cited
Felder, C. Male Sierra Nevada Blue. Sierra Nevada Blue. Butterflies and Moths of North America. Accessed November 2, 2020. https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/sites/default/files/styles/bamona_scale_and_crop_480x360/public/bamona_images/day2-butterfly3a.jpg?itok=XYqBng_Y.
Kearney, Lauren. “How the Butterfly Can Shape an Ecosystem and Why We Need to Protect Them.” One Green Planet. One Green Planet, January 28, 2015. https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/how-the-butterfly-can-shape-an-ecosystem-and-why-we-need-to-protect-them/.
Munguira, Miguel. Polyommatus Golgus. Dos and Don'ts for Butterflies of the Habitats Directive of the European Union. Nature Conservation, March 20, 2012. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Polyommatus_golgus_-_Nature_Conservation-001-073-g025.jpg.
Munguira, Miguel. Rep. Recovery Plan for the Sierra Nevada Blue. Wageningen: Butterfly Conservation Europe, 2015.
Paeger, Jürgen. Sierra Carzola. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, March 17, 2005. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Sierra-Cazorla.jpg.
Wikipedia contributors. (2020, October 30). Polyommatus golgus. In Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:39, November 2, 2020,
Woods, Adam. View of the National Park. Mulhacen, Sierra Nevada National Park, Spain. Walking English Man. Accessed November 2, 2020. https://www.walkingenglishman.com/europe/11/02.jpg.
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