Landscape-scale floral resources: A critical component of pollinator conservation?

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Aaron Iverson, Environmental Studies, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, Kevin Li, School for Enviroment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Allyson Evans, Biological Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, Heather Grab, School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, Jonathan R.B. Fisher, Conservation Science, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Washington, DC and Alison G. Power, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Background/Question/Methods
The surrounding landscape is often an important predictor of pollinator communities, yet a mechanistic understanding of why the landscape matters is limited, partially due to the lack of detailed characterizations of the landscape. We addressed how floral resource availability at landscape scales relates to the abundance and diversity of pollinators in New York State, USA. We modeled floral resource availability by first sampling the plant community composition in all major habitat types (N=144 plots in 22 habitat types) in Central New York State. We then translated the plant community data into the amount of floral area present through time per habitat by measuring flower density, flower size, and phenology of each plant species. We created a region-wide habitat map consisting of the sampled habitat types; we then populated each habitat with their corresponding floral resource quantity throughout the growing season. We used this resource map to calculate an overall floral resource curve for any defined area (i.e. any buffer radius) within the mapped region.
Results/Conclusions
We found that forested habitats provided the most floral resources, which were concentrated in the early part of the growing season. Wetland habitats tended to provide the majority of resources during the middle of the growing season, while the most disturbed habitats (e.g. old fields) provided the majority of their resources in the mid to late stages of the growing season. Importantly, we observed gaps in floral resources between the early-season bloom period dominated by forested habitats and the mid- to late-season bloom periods characteristic of non-forested habitats. These findings may have important implications for pollinator conservation, where mid-season gaps in resources could constrain pollinator resources, and habitat diversity may increase resource stability through time.