Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42505824›Full record

ArticleInsects2026

The Preponderance of Evidence Indicates That the Eastern North American Monarch Population Has Declined in All Stages of Its Annual Cycle. Reply to Davis, A.K. Comment on "Oberhauser, K.S. Eastern North American Monarch Butterfly Conservation Needs and Opportunities: What the Science Tells Us.

Karen S Oberhauser, John Pleasants

Abstract readComment
In one paragraph

Article in Insects, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Karen S OberhauserDepartment of Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
John PleasantsDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4076-4710

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Davis critiqued a recent review, "Eastern North American Monarch Butterfly Conservation Needs and Opportunities: What the Science Tells Us". He argued that Eastern North American monarch numbers in the summer have not declined, despite dramatic declines in the area covered by this population in Mexico during the winter. These declines in winter numbers, he said, can be explained by increasing mortality during the fall migration and subsequent density-dependent increases the following spring. A strong impetus for these arguments appears to be Davis's concern that recommendations by "certain circles" of the monarch research community could steer conservation funding toward a species that does not need our help. Here, we address these concerns, and note that there is no evidence that conservation funding focused on providing breeding habitat for monarchs detracts from conservation for other species in need of help, or from efforts to support migrating monarchs.

Indexed as

insect conservationmigration mortality hypothesismilkweed reduction hypothesismonarch butterflies

Identifiers

PMID42505824
PMCPMC13410685

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.