Michael Belitz
he/him/his
Assistant Professor
Interests: Effects of global environmental change on insects and how to mitigate the consequences of insect decline on ecosystem services
1630 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Education
- PhD Zoology, University of Florida and Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL, 2023
- Dissertation: Insects in a changing world: Life history traits and thermal niche condition responses to climate change and urbanization
Advisor: Dr. Rob Guralnick
- Dissertation: Insects in a changing world: Life history traits and thermal niche condition responses to climate change and urbanization
- M.S. Biology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, 2018
- Thesis: Applying biodiversity informatics and field study approaches to the conservation of Poweshiek skipperling (Oarisma poweshiek)
Advisor: Dr. Anna Monfils
- Thesis: Applying biodiversity informatics and field study approaches to the conservation of Poweshiek skipperling (Oarisma poweshiek)
- B.A. Biology & Environmental Studies, Knox College, Galesburg, IL, 2014
- Honors Thesis: Assessing the invertebrate composition of reconstructed prairies
Advisor: Dr. Stuart Allison
- Honors Thesis: Assessing the invertebrate composition of reconstructed prairies
Publications
Online Profiles
Recent Publications
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Systematic biology. pmid:41569029, doi:10.1093/sysbio/syag005
Dragonflies and damselflies (Insecta: Odonata) are descended from what were most likely the first winged animals, which flew ∼320 million years ago (Ma). They comprise ∼6400 extant species distributed across all continents except Antarctica. Examination of long-standing hypotheses regarding the role of flight behavior and wing morphology in shaping the global distribution of odonates has been limited by spatial and taxonomic scope. Here we leverage mobilized trait and distribution data derived…
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PloS one. pmid:41270053, pmc:PMC12637895, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0335856
Characterizing temporal niche is integral to understanding eco-evolutionary interactions of species, but research into the timing of species’ daily activity patterns (diel activity) has remained challenging due to data limitations. In timing their activity, organisms face trade-offs such as maximizing foraging and reproduction during favorable conditions while minimizing predation and competition. We assembled large-scale daily activity data across hundreds of butterfly species, broad geographic…
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. pmid:40758864, pmc:PMC12377735, doi:10.1073/pnas.2501340122
Insects are declining worldwide. These declines have been documented across taxonomic groups and are worrisome given ecosystem services provided by insects. Long-term data have illuminated butterfly declines across geographic regions. However, critical questions remain on how butterfly declines are distributed across species and functional groups, limiting effective conservation. Here, we show unprecedented changes in butterfly biodiversity resulting from 32 y of species levels declines…
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The Journal of animal ecology. pmid:39994832, pmc:PMC11962238, doi:10.1111/1365-2656.70007
Climate change is altering the seasonal timing of biological events across the tree of life. Phenological asynchrony has the potential to hasten population declines and disrupt ecosystem function. However, we lack broad comparisons of the degree of sensitivity to common phenological cues across multiple trophic levels. Overcoming the complexity of integrating data across trophic levels is essential for identifying spatial locations and species for which mismatches are most likely to occur. Here,…
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Ecology. pmid:39618262, doi:10.1002/ecy.4489
Urbanization in temperate climates often advances the beginning and peak of biological events due to multiple factors, especially urban heat islands. However, the effect of urbanization on insect phenology remains understudied in more tropical areas, where temperature may be a weaker phenological cue. We surveyed moths across an urban gradient in a subtropical city weekly for a year to test how impervious surface and canopy cover impact phenology at the caterpillar and adult life stages. For…
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Scientific reports. pmid:39443507, pmc:PMC11499881, doi:10.1038/s41598-024-73612-4
Insect coloration has evolved in response to multiple pressures, and in Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) a body of work supports a role of wing color in a variety of visual signals and potentially in thermoregulation. Previous efforts have focused primarily on melanistic coloration even though wings are often multicolored, and there has yet to be comprehensive comparative analyses of wing color across broad geographic regions and phylogenetic groups. Percher vs. flier flight-style, a trait…
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Global change biology. pmid:38525809, doi:10.1111/gcb.17241
Recent work has shown the decline of insect abundance, diversity and biomass, with potential implications for ecosystem services. These declines are especially pronounced in regions with high human activity, and urbanization is emerging as a significant contributing factor. However, the scale of these declines and the traits that determine variation in species-specific responses remain less well understood, especially in subtropical and tropical regions, where insect diversity is high and urban…
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American journal of botany. pmid:38419145, doi:10.1002/ajb2.16299
CONCLUSIONS: Our investigation shows the importance of phylogenetic and evolutionary studies of logistically challenging “mega-radiations.” Our findings reject any simple key innovation behind high diversity and underline the often nuanced, multifactorial processes leading to species-rich clades.
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Trends in ecology & evolution. pmid:37330409, doi:10.1016/j.tree.2023.05.010
Many ecologists increasingly advocate for research frameworks centered on the use of ‘big data’ to address anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems. Yet, experiments are often considered essential for identifying mechanisms and informing conservation interventions. We highlight the complementarity of these research frameworks and expose largely untapped opportunities for combining them to speed advancements in ecology and conservation. With nascent but increasing application of model integration, we…
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Scientific reports. pmid:35927297, pmc:PMC9352721, doi:10.1038/s41598-022-16104-7
Data availability limits phenological research at broad temporal and spatial extents. Butterflies are among the few taxa with broad-scale occurrence data, from both incidental reports and formal surveys. Incidental reports have biases that are challenging to address, but structured surveys are often limited seasonally and may not span full flight phenologies. Thus, how these data source compare in phenological analyses is unclear. We modeled butterfly phenology in relation to traits and climate…
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Scientific data. pmid:35794183, pmc:PMC9259668, doi:10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5
Here, we present the largest, global dataset of Lepidopteran traits, focusing initially on butterflies (ca. 12,500 species records). These traits are derived from field guides, taxonomic treatments, and other literature resources. We present traits on wing size, phenology,voltinism, diapause/overwintering stage, hostplant associations, and habitat affinities (canopy, edge, moisture, and disturbance). This dataset will facilitate comparative research on butterfly ecology and evolution and our…
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Ecology letters. pmid:34636143, doi:10.1111/ele.13889
Insect phenological lability is key for determining which species will adapt under environmental change. However, little is known about when adult insect activity terminates and overall activity duration. We used community-science and museum specimen data to investigate the effects of climate and urbanisation on timing of adult insect activity for 101 species varying in life history traits. We found detritivores and species with aquatic larval stages extend activity periods most rapidly in…
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iScience. pmid:33997666, pmc:PMC8101049, doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.102239
Broad-scale, quantitative assessments of insect biodiversity and the factors shaping it remain particularly poorly explored. Here we undertook a spatial phylogenetic analysis of North American butterflies to test whether climate stability and temperature gradients have shaped their diversity and endemism. We also performed the first quantitative comparisons of spatial phylogenetic patterns between butterflies and flowering plants. We expected concordance between the two groups based on shared…
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Global change biology. pmid:33249694, doi:10.1111/gcb.15461
A wave of green leaves and multi-colored flowers advances from low to high latitudes each spring. However, little is known about how flowering offset (i.e., ending of flowering) and duration of populations of the same species vary along environmental gradients. Understanding these patterns is critical for predicting the effects of future climate and land-use change on plants, pollinators, and herbivores. Here, we investigated potential climatic and landscape drivers of flowering onset, offset,…
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Applications in plant sciences. pmid:31993257, pmc:PMC6976896, doi:10.1002/aps3.11315
PREMISE: Citizen science platforms for sharing photographed digital vouchers, such as iNaturalist, are a promising source of phenology data, but methods and best practices for use have not been developed. Here we introduce methods using Yucca flowering phenology as a case study, because drivers of Yucca phenology are not well understood despite the need to synchronize flowering with obligate pollinators. There is also evidence of recent anomalous winter flowering events, but with unknown…
Selected Publications
- Idec, J., Bybee S., Ware J., Abbott J., Ferreira R.G., Suvorov A., Kohli M., Eppel L., Kuhn W., Belitz M.W., Guralnick R. 2024. Interactions between sexual signaling and body size drive ecology and evolution of wing colors in Odonata. Scientific Reports. 14: 25034.
- Folk, R.A., Siniscalchi C.M., Doby J., Kates H.R., Manchester S.R., Soltis P.S., Soltis D.E., Guralnick R.P., Belitz M.W. 2024. Spatial phylogenetics of Fagales: Investigating the history of temperate forests. Journal of Biogeography. 51: 1518-1532.
- Folk, R.A., Maassoumi A.A., Siniscalchi C.M., Kates H.R., Soltis D.E., Soltis P.S., Belitz M.W.†, Guralnick R.P.† 2024. Phylogenetic diversity and regionalization in the temperate arid zone. Journal of Systematics and Evolution.
- Belitz, M.W., Sawyer A.*, Hendrick L., Kawahara A., Guralnick R. 2024. Substantial urbanization-driven declines of larval and adult moths in a subtropical environment. Global Change Biology. 30: e17241
- Federico, N.*, Guralnick R., Belitz M.W. 2024. Large uncertainty in trait responses across insects among overall declines in a subtropical city. Insect Conservation and Diversity. 17: 312-323.
- Larsen E., Belitz M.W., Di Cecco G., Glassberg J., Hurlbert A., Ries L., Guralnick R. 2024. Overwintering strategy regulates phenological sensitivity with consequences for ecological services in a clade of temperate North American insects. Functional Ecology. 38: 1075-1088.
- Folk, R.A., Charboneau J.L.M., Belitz M.W., Singh T., Kates H.R., Soltis D.E., Soltis P.S., Guralnick R.P., Siniscalchi C.M. 2024. Anatomy of a mega-radiation: Biogeography and niche evolution in Astragalus. American Journal of Botany. e16299.
- Campbell, C.J., Barve V., Belitz M.W., Di Cecco G., Doby J., Hurlbert A., Seltzer C., Guralnick R. 2023. Identifying the identifiers: How iNaturalist facilitates collaborative, research-relevant data generation and why it matters for biodiversity science. BioScience. 73: 533-541.
- McCleery R., Guralnick R, Kang K., Beatty M., Potash A., Jones M., Campbell C., Belitz M.W., Idec J., Fletcher R. 2023. Uniting experiments and big data to advance ecology and conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 38: 970-979.
- Guralnick R.P., Campbell L., Belitz M.W. 2023. Weather anomalies more important than climate means in driving insect phenology. Communications Biology. 6: 490.
- Belitz M.W., Larsen E.A., Shirey V., Li D., Guralnick R.P. 2023. Phenological research based on natural history collections: practical guidelines and a Lepidopteran case study. Functional Ecology. 37: 234-24.
- Di Cecco, G.J., Belitz M.W., Cooper R.J., Larsen E.A., Lewis W.B., Ries L., Guralnick R.P., Hurlbert A.H. 2023. Phenology in adult and larval Lepidoptera from structured and unstructured surveys across eastern North America. Frontiers of Biogeography. 15: e56346.
- Kalkman V.J., Boudot J.P., Futahashi R., Abbott J.C., Bota-Sierra C.A., Guralnick R., Bybee S., Ware J., Belitz M.W. 2022. Diversity of Palaearctic dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata). Diversity. 14: 966.
- Larsen E.A., Belitz M.W., Guralnick R.P., Ries L. Consistent trait-temperature interactions drive butterfly phenology in both incidental and survey data. 2022. Scientific Reports. 12: 13370.
- Abbott J.C., Bota-Sierra C.A., Guralnick R., Kalkman V., Gonzalez-Soriano E., Novelo-Gutierrez R., Bybee S., Ware J., Belitz M.W. 2022. Diversity of Nearctic dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata). Diversity. 14: 575.
- Shirey V., Larsen E., Doherty A., Kim C., Al-Sulaiman F., Hinolan J., Itliong M., Naive M., Ku M., Belitz M.W., Jeschke G., Barve V., Lamas G., Kawahara A., Guralnick R., Pierce N., Lohman D., Ries L. 2022. LepTraits 1.0 A globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data. 9: 382.
- Donnelly, A. Yu R., Jones K., Belitz M.W., Li B., Duffy K., Zhang X, Wang J., Seyednasrollah B, Gerst K., Li D., Kaddoura Y., Zhu K., Morisette J., Ramey C., Smith K. 2022. Comparing in situ phenology and remotely derived phenometrics across ecosystems. Ecosphere. 13: e3912.
- Belitz, M.W., Barve V, Doby J.R., Hantak M.M., Larsen E.A., Li D., Oswald J.A., Sewnath N., Walters M., Narayani B., Earl K., Gardner N., Guralnick R. †, Stucky B.J. † 2021. Climate drivers of adult insect activity are conditioned by life history traits. Ecology Letters. 24: 2687-2699.