Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Swallowtail Butterflies
By Jenna Siu, Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario Jenna Siu is a M.Sc. Candidate in the Environment and Sustainability Collaborative Program, Department of Biology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario Research was done under the supervision of Dr. Daria Koscinski and Dr. Nusha Keyghobadi. The following is a brief summary of Jenna's research work. Background: In southern Ontario some of the most threatened habitats occur in the Carolinian Zone, where major portions of prairies, savannahs and forests have been destroyed. These changes to the natural landscape have caused habitat loss and fragmentation; the breaking up of habitat into smaller patches creating more edges, or the boundary between two land cover types. Habitat fragmentation has been shown to have harmful impacts on native populations (e.g. the Acadian Flycatcher, the American Badger, and the Grey Ratsnake). To understand how…continue reading