Honors Program Theses
Award/Availability
Open Access Honors Program Thesis
First Advisor
Kenneth Elgersma, Thesis Committee
Keywords
Bees--Conservation; Prairie restoration;
Abstract
Due to the significance of the plant-pollinator relationship, the loss of pollinators may impose widespread effects on plant communities. Pollinator declines raise questions for the future of agricultural productivity, food security, and human health. Due to the large diversity of the wild bee population and their essential role as pollinators of natural land and agricultural crops, implementing conservation practices are necessary to preserve decreasing populations. Previous conservation efforts have been limited to planting native flowering forbs in unused fields or hedgerows bordering farms and roadsides in order to establish sufficient floral resources. However, restored prairies have the ability to support bee richness and abundance to the level a remnant prairie can. Therefore, small patches of restored prairies may be a sanctuary and offer refuge to the diminishing bee population. Large scale habitat restoration, such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Pollinator Initiative, could increase not only the quantity of habitat for wild bees, but also the quality of the resources the bees have access to.
Year of Submission
5-2020
Department
Department of Biology
Department
Tallgrass Prairie Center
University Honors Designation
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors
Date Original
5-2020
Object Description
1 PDF file (27 pages)
Copyright
©2020 Allison Eagan
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Eagan, Allison, "Association between wild bee communities and floral resources in the Conservation Reserve Program" (2020). Honors Program Theses. 422.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/hpt/422
