2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium
Location
ScholarSpace, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa
Presentation Type
Open Access Poster Presentation
Document Type
poster
Keywords
Alien plants--Iowa; Plant spacing--Iowa; Plant-pollinator relationships--Iowa;
Abstract
Recently, the number of pollinators have decreased dramatically throughout the United States. Pollinators play an important role in food production with around ⅓ of the world’s food crops being dependent on pollinators. Providing a high-forage habitat for pollinators is a proposed solution to combat their decline. In the upper Midwest United States, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) helps protect pollinator habitats by providing farmers with annual payments to retire their old farmland. The purpose of this study was to compare plant density and richness in CRP fields between year 3 and year 7 post planting to find trends in the changes of plant density and richness. We surveyed eight CRP fields and compared the plant density and richness within each field between the two survey events. We analyzed data from two non-native species, Cirsium arvense and Taraxacum officinale along with two native species, Monarda fistulosa and Asclepias syriaca. Lastly, we compared the plant species richness at the site-level between the two survey events. Our study found a significant increase in the native species Monarda fistulosa and Asclepias syriaca density with a marginally significant decrease in the non-native species Cirsium arvense and Taraxacum officinale density. The whole-site richness had a marginally significant decrease. We can conclude that pollinator habitat changes significantly over time, potentially impacting pollinators.
Start Date
29-7-2022 11:00 AM
End Date
29-7-2022 1:30 PM
Event Host
Summer Undergraduate Research Program, University of Northern Iowa
Faculty Advisor
Ai Wen
Department
Department of Biology
Copyright
©2022 Liz Wilgenbusch, and Dr. Ai Wen
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Wilgenbusch, Liz and Wen, Ai Ph.D., "Comparison of Plant Richness and Density in CRP-42 Fields Between 2018 and 2022" (2022). Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium. 8.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/surp/2022/all/8
Comparison of Plant Richness and Density in CRP-42 Fields Between 2018 and 2022
ScholarSpace, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa
Recently, the number of pollinators have decreased dramatically throughout the United States. Pollinators play an important role in food production with around ⅓ of the world’s food crops being dependent on pollinators. Providing a high-forage habitat for pollinators is a proposed solution to combat their decline. In the upper Midwest United States, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) helps protect pollinator habitats by providing farmers with annual payments to retire their old farmland. The purpose of this study was to compare plant density and richness in CRP fields between year 3 and year 7 post planting to find trends in the changes of plant density and richness. We surveyed eight CRP fields and compared the plant density and richness within each field between the two survey events. We analyzed data from two non-native species, Cirsium arvense and Taraxacum officinale along with two native species, Monarda fistulosa and Asclepias syriaca. Lastly, we compared the plant species richness at the site-level between the two survey events. Our study found a significant increase in the native species Monarda fistulosa and Asclepias syriaca density with a marginally significant decrease in the non-native species Cirsium arvense and Taraxacum officinale density. The whole-site richness had a marginally significant decrease. We can conclude that pollinator habitat changes significantly over time, potentially impacting pollinators.
