Using Publicly Available Data to Quantify Plant–Pollinator Interactions and Evaluate Conservation Seeding Mixes in the Northern Great Plains

Otto, Clint R. V.; O'Dell, Samuel; Bryant, Russ Blackwood; Euliss, Ned H.; Bush, Rachel; Smart, Matthew

doi:10.1093/ee/nvx070

Cited by 36 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Native bee abundance increased as total floral richness increased, whereas honey bee abundance increased as exotic floral abundance increased. Our results are similar to other studies that have reported bottom-up effects of resource diversity on pollinators in grazed systems (Orford et al 2016) and differences in honey bee and native bee foraging preferences (Otto et al 2017). Together, these results suggest that bee species are using resources differentially in working landscapes, resulting in the spatial-temporal fluctuations observed in the plant-pollinator networks in this study and elsewhere (see Lopez et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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Plant–pollinator networks in grassland working landscapes reveal seasonal shifts in network structure and composition

et al. 2019

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Declines in native bee populations can limit pollination services that support native plant communities and global food production. Mitigating the impacts on pollinators and ecosystems requires conservation actions that promote biodiversity and remain practical for producers. We investigated plantpollinator interaction networks in working grassland landscapes, managed for cattle production and biodiversity, to advance conservation of pollinators in grazed systems. We compared and plotted interactions at the network level. We then used a regression framework to evaluate the influence of floristic availability on pollinator abundance in our system. Overall, we detected seasonal shifts at the network level, with increased specialization between flowers and bees occurring at the end of the sampling season. Furthermore, the response to floristic resources differed between honey bees (Apis mellifera) and native bees. While honey bee abundance increased with exotic floral abundance, native bee abundance showed no relationship with floral abundance and instead was positively associated with floral richness in our system. These findings could be an indication of seasonal shifts in bee activity and interactions with plants or a response to the subset of available resources in grazed systems. These interpretations, along with the detected difference in resource use between honey bees and native bees, suggest foraging preferences differ between these two groups and could influence conservation and management strategies. Furthermore, it demonstrates a need to consider how management practices could influence bee communities differentially across the growing season and suggests conservation actions should promote native floristic resources to benefit native bees.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…) and differences in honey bee and native bee foraging preferences (Otto et al. ). Together, these results suggest that bee species are using resources differentially in working landscapes, resulting in the spatial‐temporal fluctuations observed in the plant–pollinator networks in this study and elsewhere (see Lopez et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant–pollinator networks in grassland working landscapes reveal seasonal shifts in network structure and composition

et al. 2019

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“…Thus, the scale and spatial configuration of our wildflower plantings may have been more attractive to wild bees than honey bees as well. Moreover, pollinators have also been shown to exhibit differences in general preference between annual and perennial plant species (Williams et al, 2015), which supports the idea of mixing functionally diverse plant species in PRs to support pollinator species richness and diversity (Harmon-Threatt and Hendrix, 2015;Isaacs et al, 2009;Morandin et al, 2011;Otto et al, 2017;Williams et al, 2015). The utility of this research extends beyond farmers and is also applicable to community and home gardens in urban and suburban areas.…”

Section: Speciessupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Although our observations provide a small snapshot of the entire season, they strongly suggest that wild bees are using PRs and that we can craft refuge bloom phenology and wildflower composition to enhance conservation effectiveness. For example, a recent study in North Dakota found only 13% of the honey bee floral visitations were to native plant species, whereas 77% of native bee visitations were to native species (Otto et al, 2017). This demonstrates that incorporating native wildflower species can be important for native pollinator conservation efforts.…”

Section: Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollinator Refuge Establishment and Conservation Value: Impacts of Seedbed Preparations, Seed Mixtures, and Herbicides

Angelella¹,

Stange²,

Scoggins³

et al. 2019

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On-farm pollinator refuge habitats can supplement floral and nesting resources to support wild and managed pollinator communities. Although the popularity of installing these habitats has grown, and federal programs provide technical and financial advice to participating landowners, recommendations regarding habitat establishment and species composition vary. We examined the effects of seedbed preparation, seed mix composition, and herbicide applications on pollinator refuge establishment and pollinator visitation in a controlled experiment across 2 years. Seedbeds were prepared either by a no-till method with glyphosate herbicide or by repeated conventional inversion tillage. Seed mixes contained either nine annual, biennial, and perennial forbs (mix AP); seven annual, biennial, and perennial forbs that are tolerant to imazapic herbicide (mix IT); or nine perennial forbs (mix P). Mixes AP and P were grown with and without application of the graminicide herbicide sethoxydim and mix IT was grown with application of the herbicide imazapic. Seedbed preparation methodology had a strong impact on pollinator refuge establishment. A no-till approach generated greater wildflower and lower weed cover relative to tillage, leading to a greater number of blooms. In particular, there were more Indian blanket, purple coneflower, slender mountain mint, and wild bergamot blooms following a no-till seedbed preparation, indicating that certain species are more vulnerable to the effects of tillage than others. The AP and IT treatments displayed more wildflower and less weed percent cover than the P treatments during the first year, but in the second year wildflower and weed cover were similar across all mixes grown with and without herbicide. Overall pollinator abundance, which was dominated by native bees, correlated positively with wildflower bloom counts, suggesting that habitat establishment methods that increase wildflower blooms can positively affect the pollinator conservation value of the habitats. This research indicates that establishing on-farm wildflower habitats can be most successful with no-till seedbed preparation, a mixture of annual, biennial, and perennial forb species, and that herbicides applied after planting wildflowers may not be worth the costs of application.

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“…Prior to European settlement, the Prairie Pothole Region was a mosaic of depressional wetlands with tall-grass prairie in the east to short-grass prairie in the west [16]. While limited research on native bee communities exists in this region, recent work suggests remnant patches of grasslands provide valuable habitat for native bees [17][18][19]. The Prairie Pothole Region is likely the most important region in the country for supporting managed honey bees [20].…”

Section: Importance Of Bees and Need For Widespread Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular sequencing and morphological identification reveal similar patterns in native bee communities across public and private grasslands of eastern North Dakota

et al. 2020

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Bees play a key role in the functioning of human-modified and natural ecosystems by pollinating agricultural crops and wild plant communities. Global pollinator conservation efforts need large-scale and long-term monitoring to detect changes in species' demographic patterns and shifts in bee community structure. The objective of this project was to test a molecular sequencing pipeline that would utilize a commonly used locus, produce accurate and precise identifications consistent with morphological identifications, and generate data that are both qualitative and quantitative. We applied this amplicon sequencing pipeline to native bee communities sampled across Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands and native grasslands in eastern North Dakota. We found the 28S LSU locus to be more capable of discriminating between species than the 18S SSU rRNA locus, and in some cases even resolved instances of cryptic species or morphologically ambiguous species complexes. Overall, we found the amplicon sequencing method to be a qualitatively accurate representation of the sampled bee community richness and species identity, especially when a wellcurated database of known 28S LSU sequences is available. Both morphological identification and molecular sequencing revealed similar patterns in native bee community structure across CRP lands and native prairie. Additionally, a genetic algorithm approach to compute taxon-specific correction factors using a small subset of the most concordant samples demonstrated that a high level of quantitative accuracy could be possible if the specimens are fresh and processed soon after collection. Here we provide a first step to a molecular pipeline for identifying insect pollinator communities. This tool should prove useful for future national monitoring efforts as use of molecular tools becomes more affordable and as numbers of 28S LSU sequences for pollinator species increase in publicly-available databases.

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Using Publicly Available Data to Quantify Plant–Pollinator Interactions and Evaluate Conservation Seeding Mixes in the Northern Great Plains

Cited by 36 publications

References 41 publications

Plant–pollinator networks in grassland working landscapes reveal seasonal shifts in network structure and composition

Plant–pollinator networks in grassland working landscapes reveal seasonal shifts in network structure and composition

Pollinator Refuge Establishment and Conservation Value: Impacts of Seedbed Preparations, Seed Mixtures, and Herbicides

Molecular sequencing and morphological identification reveal similar patterns in native bee communities across public and private grasslands of eastern North Dakota

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