This is Adam’s second summer studying butterfly communities in remnant and reconstructed prairies under different grazing and burning regimes. He is also running a side study on the regal fritillary, a prairie specialist, looking at where males and females occur, how they use reconstructed and remnant patches, and how that relates to violet abundance.
This season looked different from last year. Adam saw an abundance of monarchs and other generalist butterflies across both remnants and reconstructions. He also found regal fritillaries using reconstructed prairies, not just remnants like last year, and he was able to identify the sex of the regals and other butterfly species he found this season. He is excited to dig into the differences between males and females and looks forward to exploring his findings over the coming year.
Adam isn’t originally from the Midwest. He grew up in Los Angeles, California, planning to go into the medical field. While at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, he found himself drawn to the wildlife side of biology, managing bumblebee colonies, fish, and plants for several senior thesis projects. After graduating, he joined the American Conservation Experience, an AmeriCorps program, where he led youth crews on conservation projects across the Pacific Northwest and Southwest. After three years of leading crews, he decided it was time for the next step and joined the Kral-O’Brien lab to study butterflies.
Two field seasons in, Adam’s favorite part is still camping for the entire season. His AmeriCorps years prepared him for the long days and long stretches in the field. Blending that experience with graduate research has kept him motivated. One thing he didn’t expect was the hospitality of Minnesotans. People were friendly and eager to hear about his work, and getting to share his research directly with communities who didn’t know much about prairie butterflies was incredibly fulfilling.
The most common question he got was what people could do to help. His answer: plant native species, and plant a variety of them. A mix of flowering forbs and grasses with staggered bloom times supports as much wildlife as possible across the whole season.
Want to hear more about Adam's research? Check out his summer highlight from last year!
Photos by Adam Meneses