D3137: Does land use surrounding prairie strips (CP-43) affect the community of pollinators that respond to this conservation practice?

Monday, November 11, 2024

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM MST

Location: Phoenix Convention Center, Exhibit Hall 6, PCC

Presenting Author(s)

AM

Abigail Miller

Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa

Co-Author(s)

Matthew E. O'Neal

Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa
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Tim Youngquist

Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa

Habitat for pollinators is provided through the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), with practices like “prairie strips” (CP-43). To what extent the impact of this practice on abundance and diversity of bees is affected by the surrounding land use is unclear. We addressed this uncertainty in Iowa where prairie strips were initially developed for integration into row crop fields. We tested the hypothesis that the pollinator community would vary based on the dominant land use type surrounding prairie strips. We defined landscape diversity in terms of the amount of corn and soybean surrounding a strip within a 3-km buffer of a CP-43 strip. We have identified multiple farms employing CP-43 surrounded by high amounts of agriculture ( >80% corn and soybean) or low-agriculture (< 40% corn and soybean). We randomly selected five in each category from a set of 30 farms with prairie strips that have been established for at least 3 years. Using BeeScape, we estimated nesting availability for wild bees, and floral resources during spring, summer and fall for each of our selected sites. Based on our initial assessment with BeeScape, sites surrounded by mostly agriculture have fewer nesting and floral resources than those surrounded by less corn and soybean. We will measure bee abundance and diversity, and floral resources along 100m transects within these sites during the 2024 growing season. We predict that pollinator response to the surrounding landscape will vary depending upon the habitat and migratory nature of various pollinator species found in Iowa.