Neurobiological interfaces connecting environmental change to monarch butterfly migration

Seasonal migration requires precise coordination between environmental sensing, neural processing, and physiological state. The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a powerful model for understanding how neural systems generate adaptive responses across time and space. Migratory monarchs exhibit distinct seasonal reproductive traits and orientations, all regulated by environmental cues such as photoperiod, temperature, sunlight, and the Earth's magnetic field. Recent work has identified key neurobiological mechanisms underlying these processes, including circadian clock-dependent photoperiodic signaling, seasonal remodeling of the blood-brain barrier, and navigational compass systems guiding orientation. Here, we synthesize current knowledge and propose how anthropogenic stressors-artificial light at night, climate warming, and electromagnetic noise-could potentially disrupt the already threatened monarch migration by targeting key neurobiological interfaces that link environmental cues to migratory physiology and behavior. Understanding how these interfaces integrate environmental information will be critical for predicting the vulnerability of migratory monarchs, and possibly other insects, to rapid environmental change.