Pollinator response to prairie strips in the Iowa agricultural landscape

Murray, Caroline J.

doi:10.31274/etd-20210609-129

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Treatments with prairie strips increased the average abundance of monarch butterflies by up to two‐fold compared to other row crop treatments. This aligns with another study that found a higher abundance of monarchs and other pollinators in farms with prairie strips than without strips (Murray, 2021). Beyond its biological significance, the increased abundance of monarchs has cultural and aesthetic values, which can support prairie strip adoption.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…within prairie strips are not at harmful levels to monarch butterflies ( Danaus plexippus L.) (Hall et al, 2022). While prairie strips are known to increase the prevalence of bees and specific species of butterflies like monarchs (Kordbacheh et al, 2020; Murray, 2021; Schulte et al, 2017), the effects of prairie strips on butterfly diversity are not known and are what we address here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Butterfly biodiversity increases with prairie strips and conservation management in row crop agriculture

Kemmerling

McCarthy

Brown

et al. 2023

Insect Conserv Diversity

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Butterfly abundances are declining globally, with meta‐analysis showing a rate of −2% per year. Agriculture contributes to butterfly decline through habitat loss and degradation. Prairie strips—strips of farmland actively restored to native perennial vegetation—are a conservation practice with the potential to mitigate biodiversity loss, but their impact on butterfly biodiversity is not known. Working within a 30‐year‐old experiment that varied land use intensity, from natural areas to croplands (maize–soy–wheat rotation), we introduced prairie strips to less intensely managed crop treatments. Treatments included conservation land, biologically based (organic) row crops with prairie strips, reduced input row crops with prairie strips, no‐till row crops and conventional row crops. We measured butterfly abundance and richness: (1) within prairie strips and (2) across the gradient of land use intensity at the plot level. Butterfly abundance was higher within prairie strips than in all other treatments. Across the land use intensity gradient at the plot level, the conservation land treatment had the highest abundance, treatments with prairie strips had intermediate levels and no‐till and conventional treatments had the lowest abundances. Also across entire plots, butterfly richness increased as land use intensity decreased. Treatments with prairie strips, which also had reduced land use intensity, had distinct butterfly communities as they harboured several butterfly species that were not found in other row crop treatments. In addition to the known effects of prairie strips on ecosystem services including erosion control and increased water quality, prairie strips can increase biodiversity in multifunctional landscapes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Butterfly biodiversity increases with prairie strips and conservation management in row crop agriculture

Kemmerling

McCarthy

Brown

et al. 2023

Insect Conserv Diversity

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“…and Oenothera spp. (Murray, 2021), which are typically planted during restoration projects. To capture a recent movement towards including conservation within agricultural landscapes, we also surveyed five fields with prairie strips (‘Prairie Strips’).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Debunking wasp pollination: Wasps are comparable to bees in terms of plant interactions, body pollen and single‐visit pollen deposition

Borchardt,

Holthaus,

Soto Méndez

et al. 2024

Ecological Entomology

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Wasps are understudied in their contribution to pollination services. In order to better understand the ecological contribution of wasp communities to plant pollination, we conducted three studies to compare bees and wasps by (1) the plant communities visited in agricultural and prairie environments, (2) body pollen composition as an indirect measure of pollination and (3) a single‐visit deposition study as a direct measure of pollination in the plant species complex Solidago canadensis. We found wasps visit a distinct early‐blooming exotic plant community from bees but have overlapping use of late‐blooming native plants and similar network interaction metrics. This suggests wasps may fill an ecological niche distinct from bees, while also serving as common native plant visitors. We also found that body pollen density and pollen fidelity in four and five (out of six) wasp families, respectively, were comparable to or greater than the bee family Colletidae. Three wasp families also showed comparable to or greater visit fidelity than two (out of five) bee families examined. These results suggest wasps may carry and potentially deliver substantial pollen to specific plants. In addition, controlled single‐visit deposition revealed the paper wasp Polistes fuscatus deposits a similar amount of pollen grains as the bumble bee Bombus impatiens, suggesting surprisingly high pollination efficiency that warrants further investigation. Our multi‐pronged study shows the importance of investigating the role of wasps as pollinators, especially by focusing on direct plant‐pollination metrics to determine wasp pollination efficacy.

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“…We estimated the landscape composition surrounding each potential apiary at both prairie strip and potential control sites within 1.6 km radius using ArcMap 10.5.1 (Redlands, U.S.) and selected control sites which had a landscape composition similar to the nearest prairie strip site (Table S3 and Figure S1 for detailed description of this method). In only one case was pollinator habitat (CP42) found (approximately 1 km from both a prairie strip site and a control site) that could have been another source of native flowering plants (Murray, 2021). Two of the control sites in 2017 were not reused in 2018 or 2019; all control sites in 2018 were reused in 2019.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Native vegetation embedded in landscapes dominated by corn and soybean improves honey bee health and productivity

Zhang

Murray

Clair

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Balancing demand for food while supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services in landscapes committed to crop production may require integrating conservation with agriculture. Adding strips of diverse, native, perennial vegetation, through the recently created prairie strips practice of the U.S. Conservation Reserve Program, into annual cropland reduces soil and nutrient loss, and supports more diverse and abundant communities of birds and insects, including native pollinators. It remains unclear if prairie strips can reverse declines in the health and productivity of the exotic honey bee in the U.S. This study determined if prairie strips provide floral resources to honey bees and support colony vigour, in a highly farmed landscape with limited perennial habitat. We hypothesized that honey bee health and productivity would be improved if given access to prairie strips, and this hypothesis was tested in a multi‐year, replicated, longitudinal study on commercial, conventional farms committed to corn and soybean production with and without prairie strips. We predicted that prairie strips would have more diverse flowering plants, and colonies located in these strips would be healthier and more productive than colonies kept at farms without purposefully established native vegetation (i.e. control fields). We found that prairie strips had more diverse flowering plants and abundant floral resources than control fields. Colonies kept at fields with prairie strips collected 50% more pollen during the growing season (June–September), had a 24% larger end‐of‐season worker bee populations, and 20% higher overwinter survival than colonies kept at control fields. Furthermore, colonies kept at prairie strips were 24% heavier when they reached their peak‐weight in August, an indicator of honey production. Honey bees collected pollen from flowering plants found in prairie strips, revealing the potential for interactions with wild pollinators. However, this was limited to 50% of the taxa in prairie strips, suggesting honey bees may not deplete all of the food resources simultaneously used by wild pollinators. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that efforts to enhance habitat diversity within croplands with native plants increase honey bee health and productivity while providing multiple additional ecosystem services important to agriculture.

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Pollinator response to prairie strips in the Iowa agricultural landscape

Cited by 6 publications

References 40 publications

Butterfly biodiversity increases with prairie strips and conservation management in row crop agriculture

Butterfly biodiversity increases with prairie strips and conservation management in row crop agriculture

Debunking wasp pollination: Wasps are comparable to bees in terms of plant interactions, body pollen and single‐visit pollen deposition

Native vegetation embedded in landscapes dominated by corn and soybean improves honey bee health and productivity

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