Utilizing novel grasslands for the conservation and restoration of butterflies and other pollinators in agricultural ecosystems

Delaney, John Thomas

doi:10.31274/etd-180810-3642

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 226 publications

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“…Butterfly sampling was conducted between 0900-1830 hours Central Standard Time when temperatures were between 21 and 35°C and wind speed was below 16 kph. The full details of this sampling approach can be found in Moranz et al (2012) and Delaney (2014). The common and scientific names of the butterfly species we observed and their total abundance in each year are included elsewhere (Supplemental Table S3).…”

Section: Butterfly Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of Flowering Plant and Butterfly Communities to Experimental Herbicide and Seeding Treatments for Native Grassland Restoration

et al. 2021

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Globally, grasslands are among the most degraded habitats, and within that category tallgrass prairies are especially threatened. To restore native species in tallgrass prairie, it is often necessary to concurrently remove exotic plant species while restoring the disturbance processes that many prairie taxa depend upon. Here, we coupled one herbicide application and seed mixture addition with tri-annual prescribed fire and annual cattle grazing to explore the consequences for floral resource (i.e., nectar-producing) plant communities and butterfly communities up to four years later. Each site was divided into three equally sized patches which were placed into either control, "spray-only", or "spray-and-seed" treatment groups. We quantified both floral resource plant and butterfly communities in the year prior to herbicide application and the four years following that treatment. In the four years post-treatment, we found that floral resource abundance, richness, and diversity increased over time but did not significantly vary among treatments. No response to treatment was observed in butterflies, but butterfly abundance decreased while richness was stable and diversity increased over time, which may indicate that the changes to floral resources at the patch scale supported more speciose and diverse butterfly communities at the site scale. Butterfly abundance decreasing over time could be an effect of baseline management or unrelated regional factors. Regardless of whether either treatment benefited butterflies, we find support for a one-time herbicide application changing the floral community in desirable ways and at least not harming butterflies.

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Section: Butterfly Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%