Research supports the need for more prairies and meadows in urban landscapes

Most everyone loves butterflies, but who knew that butterflies are good indicators of urban landscape health? The reason is that adult butterflies are very sensitive to extreme changes in temperature, light and humidity; which can be extreme in downtown urban areas (Erhardt and Thomas 1991). A 2002 study published in Biodiversity and Conservation finds that "species are restricted in their distribution in the landscape by the availability of suitable habitat," rather than being able to disperse to available habitat patches (Wood and Pullen 2002). The authors conclude that cities should focus on providing more biodiverse grassland habitat rather than trying to connect existing patches.