2019 Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Presentation Type

Open Access Poster Presentation

Keywords

Bees--Ecology; Bees--Habitat;

Abstract

Prairies once dominated 85% of Iowa. Sadly, that large portion of native prairie has been drastically reduced to 0.01% because of agricultural expansion. Habitat loss is one of the main contributors to the massive decline in the native bee population and its biodiversity. Native pollinators are essential to the ecosystem and play a large role in the pollination of row crops. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), administered by the US Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency, launched the CP-42 program specifically as a Pollinator Habitat Initiative for forbs and grasses to be planted to increase pollinator habitat. However, no methods exist to assess CRP-42 site quality. Using a weighted formula that was generated to quantify floral resources (Floral Resource Index or FRI), We assessed CP-42 habitat value by analyzing the correlation of the sites’ FRI score with the native bee density. Plots were surveyed over the course of three summers; 2017, 2018, and 2019. Floral resources were recorded from live flowers, and bees were captured using sweep netting techniques. We discovered that sites with higher FRI scores consisted of more floral species; 62 was the average FRI scores for each plot surveyed over the course of three years. This finding indicated that the three CP-42 years show consistency pertaining to their FRI scores. However, we did not find significant correlation between the site’s FRI score and the native bee density. Ultimately, my data suggests that a site with a low FRI score can still provide high quality habitat for pollinators. Conversely, sites with high FRI scores do not necessarily guarantee higher bee diversity or density.

Start Date

2-8-2019 11:30 AM

End Date

2-8-2019 1:30 PM

Event Host

Summer Undergraduate Research Program, University of Northern Iowa

Faculty Advisor

Ai Wen

Department

Department of Biology

File Format

application/pdf

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Entomology Commons

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Aug 2nd, 11:30 AM Aug 2nd, 1:30 PM

Assessing CP - 42 Habitat Value for Bees using the Floral Resource Index

Prairies once dominated 85% of Iowa. Sadly, that large portion of native prairie has been drastically reduced to 0.01% because of agricultural expansion. Habitat loss is one of the main contributors to the massive decline in the native bee population and its biodiversity. Native pollinators are essential to the ecosystem and play a large role in the pollination of row crops. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), administered by the US Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency, launched the CP-42 program specifically as a Pollinator Habitat Initiative for forbs and grasses to be planted to increase pollinator habitat. However, no methods exist to assess CRP-42 site quality. Using a weighted formula that was generated to quantify floral resources (Floral Resource Index or FRI), We assessed CP-42 habitat value by analyzing the correlation of the sites’ FRI score with the native bee density. Plots were surveyed over the course of three summers; 2017, 2018, and 2019. Floral resources were recorded from live flowers, and bees were captured using sweep netting techniques. We discovered that sites with higher FRI scores consisted of more floral species; 62 was the average FRI scores for each plot surveyed over the course of three years. This finding indicated that the three CP-42 years show consistency pertaining to their FRI scores. However, we did not find significant correlation between the site’s FRI score and the native bee density. Ultimately, my data suggests that a site with a low FRI score can still provide high quality habitat for pollinators. Conversely, sites with high FRI scores do not necessarily guarantee higher bee diversity or density.