Evolution of Scientific Knowledge on the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve

Authors

  • Miriam E. Pérez-Romero TecNM/ITS Huichapan, Business Management Division, Higher Technological Institute of Huichapan, Hidalgo 42411, Mexico; meperez@iteshu.edu.mx Doctoral Program in Sustainable Territorial Development (R015), The International Doctoral School, University of Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain; mperezgp@alumnos.unex.es
  • Francisco J. Fernández-González Doctoral Program in Sustainable Territorial Development (R015), The International Doctoral School, University of Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain; Ffernander@alumnos.unex.es
  • María de la Cruz Del Río-Rama Business Management and Marketing Department, Faculty of Business Sciences and Tourism, University of Vigo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9396-9341
  • Francisco Venegas-Martínez Escuela Superior de Economía, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Av. Plan de Agua Prieta 66, Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City 11350, Mexico; fvenegas1111@yahoo.com.mx

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59072/rper.vi74.867

Keywords:

Monarch Butterfly; natural protected areas; Conservation and Sustainability; Biodiversity management; bibliometrics analysis

Abstract

This study presents a comprehensive overview of scientific research conducted in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR) by identifying patterns, trends, and thematic areas of knowledge developed between 1997 and April 2025. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using data from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, considering indicators such as scientific output, citation patterns, author and institutional productivity, and keyword co-occurrence. Descriptive statistics and thematic mapping were used to examine the evolution of research, as well as the most influential countries, institutions, authors, and journals. A total of 106 unique articles were identified, showing a sustained growth in scientific production; 2020 was the most productive year and 2014 the most cited. Mexico leads scientific output, followed by the United States and Canada, with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) standing out as the most productive institution. The thematic analysis identified six main research domains: conservation and environmental management, socioeconomic aspects and governance, forest ecology, research methodologies, monarch butterfly biology, and climatic and hydrological phenomena. Although limited to WoS and Scopus, the study provides key evidence to inform conservation policies and strengthen the sustainable management of the MBBR.

References

Alonso-Mejía, A., Rendón-Salinas, E., Montesinos-Patiño, E., & Brower, L. P. (1997). Use of lipid reserves by monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico: Implications for conservation. Ecological Applications, 7(3), 934–947. https://doi.org/10.2307/2269444

Álvarez-García, J., Durán-Sánchez, A., & Del Río-Rama, M. (2018). Scientific coverage in community-based tourism: Sustainable tourism and strategy for social development. Sustainability, 10(4), 1158. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041158

Bojórquez-Tapia, L. A., Brower, L. P., Castilleja, G., Sánchez-Colón, S., Hernández, M., Calvert, W., Díaz, S., Gómez-Priego, P., Alcántar, G., Melgarejo, E. D., Solares, M. J., Gutiérrez, L., & Juárez, M. del L. (2003). Mapping expert knowledge: Redesigning the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. Conservation Biology, 17(2), 367–379. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.2003.01309.x

Brenner, L. (2006). Áreas naturales protegidas y ecoturismo: El caso de la Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca, México. Relaciones. Estudios de historia y sociedad, 28(105).

Brenner, L. (2009). Aceptación de políticas de conservación ambiental: El caso de la Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca. Economía, Sociedad y Territorio. https://doi.org/10.22136/est002009175

Castañeda, M. C., & Espinoza, E. C. (2021). Sites with charm of Morelia, Michoacán, México: Sanctuary of the Monarch Butterflies. Journal of Tourism and Heritage Research, 4(4), 35–45.

Catalan, A. K. R. (2015). The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve: An exemplary participative approach? Environmental Development, 16, 90–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.04.005

Champo-Jiménez, O., Valderrama-Landeros, L., & España-Boquera, M. L. (2012). Forest cover loss in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Michoacán, Mexico (2006–2010). Revista Chapingo Serie Ciencias Forestales y del Ambiente, 18(2), 143–157. https://doi.org/10.5154/r.rchscfa.2010.09.074

Commission for Environmental Cooperation. (2017). Monitoreo de la mariposa monarca y su hábitat en América del Norte: Protocolos de monitoreo e inventariado, así como estándares de datos, para la conservación de la especie. CEC: Montreal, Canada. https://www.cec.org/files/documents/publications/11763-monitoring-monarch-butterflies-and-their-habitat-across-north-america-inventory-es.pdf

Costas, R., Moreno, L., & Bordons, M. (2008). Solapamiento y singularidad de MEDLINE, WoS e IME para el análisis de la actividad científica en una región de Ciencias de la Salud. Revista Española de Documentación Científica, 31(3), 327–343.

Crane, D. (1977). Social structure in a group of scientists: A test of the “invisible college” hypothesis. In M. Leinhardt (Ed.), Social structure in a group of scientists (pp. 161–178). Academic Press.

Donthu, N., Kumar, S., Mukherjee, D., Pandey, N., & Lim, W. M. (2021). How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 133, 285–296.

Durán-Sánchez, A., Álvarez-García, J., Del Río-Rama, M. C., & Maldonado-Erazo, C. P. (2016). Economía colaborativa: Análisis de la producción científica en revistas académicas. Revista de Gestão e Secretariado, 7(3), 1–20.

Durán-Sánchez, A., Del Río-Rama, M. C., & Álvarez-García, J. (2017). Bibliometric analysis of publications on wine tourism in the databases Scopus and WoS. European Research on Management and Business Economics, 23(1), 8–15.

Esquivel, S., Cruz, G., Cadena, C., & Zizumbo, L. (2014). El turismo como instrumento de política ambiental en el Santuario de la Mariposa Monarca El Rosario. Economía, Sociedad y Territorio, 14(44), 141–174. El Colegio Mexiquense, A.C.

Flockhart, D. T. T., Pichancourt, J., Norris, D. R., & Martin, T. G. (2015). Unravelling the annual cycle in a migratory animal: Breeding-season habitat loss drives population declines of monarch butterflies. Journal of Animal Ecology, 84(1), 155–165. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12253

Flores-Martínez, J. J., Martínez-Pacheco, A., Rendón-Salinas, E., Rickards, J., Sarkar, S., & Sánchez-Cordero, V. (2019). Recent forest cover loss in the core zones of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 7, 167. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2019.00167

Gluck, M. (1990). A review of journal coverage overlap with an extension to the definition of overlap. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 41(1), 43–60.

Godínez, L., Figueroa, E., Mendoza, M. M., & Pérez-Soto, F. (2018). Análisis del ingreso mensual de las familias en El Rosario, Michoacán. In Crecimiento y desarrollo sustentable en México. Asociación Mexicana de Investigación Interdisciplinaria A.C.

Honey-Rosés, J., López-García, J., Rendón-Salinas, E., Peralta-Higuera, A., & Galindo-Leal, C. (2009). To pay or not to pay? Monitoring performance and enforcing conditionality when paying for forest conservation in Mexico. Environmental Conservation, 36(2), 120–128. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892909990063

Ibarra García, M. V. (2011). Conformación del espacio social de los bosques del ejido del Rosario, Michoacán, 1938–2010. Investigaciones Geográficas, Boletín del Instituto de Geografía, UNAM, 75, 75–87.

Kratzer, A. (2018). Biosphere reserves research: A bibliometric analysis. eco.mont, 10, 36–49.

Li, C., Li, Y., Wu, J., & Ma, Z. (2025). Trends in the application of citizen science in waterbird conservation: A bibliometric analysis. Animals, 15(3), 368.

López-García, J., & Alcántara-Ayala, I. (2012). Land-use change and hillslope instability in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, central Mexico. Land Degradation & Development, 23(4), 384–397.

Martín-Martín, A., Orduna-Malea, E., Thelwall, M., & Delgado López-Cózar, E. (2018). Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus: A systematic comparison of citations in 252 subject categories. Journal of Informetrics, 12(4), 1160–1177.

Martínez, F., & Chávez, M. P. (2022). La Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca, un importante espacio para el desarrollo de actividades sustentables. ATMEX. Retrieved June 10, 2025, from https://atmex.org/la-reserva-de-la-biosfera-mariposa-monarca-un-importante-espacio-para-el-desarrollo-de-actividades-sustentables/

Martínez-Vega, J., & Rodríguez-Rodríguez, D. (2022). Protected area effectiveness in the scientific literature: A decade-long bibliometric analysis. Land, 11, 924.

Mongeon, P., & Paul-Hus, A. (2016). The journal coverage of Web of Science and Scopus: A comparative analysis. Scientometrics, 106(1), 213–228.

Morante-Carballo, F., Bravo-Montero, L., Montalván-Burbano, N., & Carrión-Mero, P. (2023). Bibliometric Analysis of Earthquake Research in America: A Comparative Study Using Web of Science and Scopus Databases. International Journal of Safety & Security Engineering, 13(5), 966-973.

Navarrete, J.-L., Ramírez, M. I., & Pérez-Salicrup, D. R. (2011). Logging within protected areas: Spatial evaluation of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. Forest Ecology and Management, 262(4), 646–654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2011.04.033

Ospino, J. O., & Yepes, G. Y. F. (2024). Effectiveness and management of terrestrial protected areas: A bibliometric analysis. Ambiente e Água, 19, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.4136/ambi-agua.2944

Pfeiler, E., Nazario-Yepiz, N. O., Pérez-Gálvez, F., Chávez-Mora, C. A., Laclette, M. R. L., Rendón-Salinas, E., & Markow, T. A. (2017). Population genetics of overwintering monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus Linnaeus) from central Mexico inferred from mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite markers. Journal of Heredity, 108(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esw071

Price, D. J. de Solla. (1963). Little science, big science. Columbia University Press.

Pulgarín, A., & Escalona, M. A. (2007). Medida del solapamiento en tres bases de datos con información sobre ingeniería. Anales de Documentación, 10, 335–344.

Ramm, K., Brown, C., Arneth, A., & Rounsevell, M. (2025). Human pressure on global land ecosystems and biodiversity increases notably from 1990–2020 – Development of a spatially explicit Biodiversity Pressure Index (BPI). EGUsphere, preprint. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-5708

Rees Catalán, A. K. (2015). The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve: An exemplary participative approach? Environmental Development, 16, 90–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2015.04.005

Rendón-Salinas, E., Alonso, A., García-Serrano, E., Valera-Bermejo, A., & Quesada, M. (2023). The monarch butterfly in Mexico: A conservation model. Current Opinion in Insect Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2023.101112

Salouw, E., Setiawan, B., Roychansyah, M. S., & Sarwadi, A. (2024). Bibliometric analysis of tourism and community participation research: A comparison of Scopus and Web of Science databases. International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, 19(4), 1415–1422. https://doi.org/10.18280/ijsdp.190419

Samways, M. J., Pryke, J. S., Gaigher, R., & Deacon, C. (2024). Biosphere reserves in the megadiverse Cape Floristic Region are effective in conserving arthropod diversity. Integrative Conservation, 3(4), 312–329. https://doi.org/10.1002/inc3.72

Sáenz-Romero, C., Mendoza-Maya, E., Gómez-Pineda, E., Blanco-García, A., Endara-Agramont, A. R., Lindig-Cisneros, R., López-Upton, J., Trejo-Ramírez, O., Wehenkel, C., Cibrián-Tovar, D., Flores-López, C., Plascencia-González, A., & Vargas-Hernández, J. J. (2020). Recent evidence of Mexican temperate forest decline and the need for ex situ conservation, assisted migration, and translocation of species ensembles as adaptive management to face projected climatic change impacts in a megadiverse country. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 50(9), 843–854. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2019-0329

Serrano Junco, C. L., Agudelo Idárraga, J. A., & García Donato, A. del P. (2023). Bibliometric analysis, disruptive technologies and management of educational institutions: A review of Scopus and WoS in the last five years. Mundo FESC, 13(27), 99–117. https://doi.org/10.61799/2216-0388.1326

Silva, S., Silva, L. F., & Vieira, A. (2023). Protected areas and nature-based tourism: A 30-year bibliometric review. Sustainability, 15(15), 11698. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511698

Singh, V. (2024). Threats to biodiversity. In Textbook of Environment and Ecology (pp. 217–224). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8846-4_14

Solution for Sustainable Development. (n.d). Conservación de la Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca, a través del desarrollo integral sostenible. Retrieved June 10, 2025, from https://sdsnmexico.mx/banco-de-proyectos/medio-ambiente-actividades-agropecuarias-y-alimentacion/conservacion-de-la-reserva-de-la-biosfera-mariposa-monarca-a-traves-del-desarrollo-integral-sostenible/

Steven, R., & Castley, J. G. (2021). A bibliometric analysis of 44 years of research on birdwatching tourism. Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity, 5(3), 10–25.

Stojanović, V., Vujičić, M., Besermenji, S., & Mijatov Ladičorbić, M. (2024). Evaluating the importance of cultural heritage in a biosphere reserve: The case of Croats (Šokci) local community in the Mura-Drava-Danube biosphere reserve (Vojvodina, Serbia). Socijalna Ekologija, 33(3), 257–279. https://doi.org/10.17234/socekol.33.3.7

Theobald, D. M., Oakleaf, J. R., Moncrieff, G., Voigt, M., Kiesecker, J., & Kennedy, C. M. (2025). Global extent and change in human modification of terrestrial ecosystems from 1990 to 2022. bioRxiv, preprint. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.12.632633

Toilbay, O., Moldabekov, A., Moldabekova, N., & Abai, A. (2023). Impact of human population growth on species extinction. Вестник КазАТК, 129(6), 432–439. https://doi.org/10.52167/1609-1817-2023-129-6-432-439

UNESCO. (2025a). ¿Qué son las reservas de la biosfera? Retrieved June 10, 2025, from https://www.unesco.org/es/mab/wnbr/about

UNESCO. (2025b). Lista del Patrimonio Mundial. Retrieved June 10, 2025, from https://whc.unesco.org/es/list/

van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2010). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523–538.

Vicente, J. C. (2020). Monitoreo de restauración activa y pasiva en un sitio perturbado dentro de la zona núcleo de la Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca [Master’s thesis, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo].

Vidal, O., López-García, J., & Rendón-Salinas, E. (2014). Trends in deforestation and forest degradation after a decade of monitoring in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. Conservation Biology, 28(1), 177–186. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12138

Vidal, O., & Rendón-Salinas, E. (2014). Dynamics and trends of overwintering colonies of the monarch butterfly in Mexico. Biological Conservation, 180, 165–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.09.041

Xu, B. (2022). Monarch butterfly conservation (Mexico). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.1084

Zhu, J., & Liu, W. (2020). A tale of two databases: The use of Web of Science and Scopus in academic papers. Scientometrics, 123(1), 321–335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03387-8

Downloads

Published

27-04-2026

How to Cite

Pérez-Romero, M. E., Fernández-González , F. J. ., Del Río-Rama, M. de la C., & Venegas-Martínez, F. (2026). Evolution of Scientific Knowledge on the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. RPER, (74), 97–121. https://doi.org/10.59072/rper.vi74.867

Most read articles by the same author(s)