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10-Minute Presentation

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

10-min: P-IE, Pollinators 2

Floral resources, not management, drive wild bee communities and sentinel bee nesting success in urban greenways along the Red River, ND and MN

Sunday, November 10, 2024
3:42 PM – 3:54 PM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 221 C, PCC
Oral Presentation
Pollinators are declining globally. Enhancing habitat with a diversity of native forbs is a conservation strategy to augment dwindling floral and nesting resources concomitant with habitat loss. While habitat enhancements within agricultural landscapes have well-documented benefits for pollinators, few studies examine if benefits are realized in urban settings. This study investigates the value of urban green spaces for pollinators across three vegetation management regimes: naturalized grassland, enhanced grassland, and recreational parkland. We surveyed pollinators, floral resources, and nesting of a sentinel bee (Megachile rotundata) along the Red River in Fargo, ND and Moorhead, MN, in 2018 (8 sites) and 2019 (15 sites). Mown recreational parks were added in 2019. Floral and pollinator abundance and richness were lowest in recreational parks but similar between naturalized and enhanced sites. We consistently observed a strong, direct relationship between pollinator community metrics and floral display. Megachile rotundata nest performance was similar across management regimes, but increased with floral display in 2018 and richness in 2019. In this study, natural areas provided better floral resources than manicured parks; however, habitat enhancements did not add measurable benefits for pollinator communities or nest performance. Flowering weeds in naturalized grasslands rivaled floral resources at enhanced sites, some of which established poorly due to competing grasses. Pollinator plantings in this region may require intensified management to succeed. Given flowering weeds presented an important food source for pollinators in urban parks, conservation efforts should consider potential trade-offs of weed control programs.