PS 14-141 - The influence of plant functional diversity on pollinator functional diversity in a restored prairie ecosystem

Background/Question/Methods

Prairie ecosystems have been reduced significantly throughout the American midwest due to land development and agriculture. Endangered prairie ecosystems provide habitat to many species; thus, prairie restoration is critical in conserving biodiversity. Prairie management strategies are implemented to meet plant-based objectives with little focus placed on non-plant organisms, limiting understanding of upper trophic levels. Several native bee species that require prairie for food and nesting are endangered, despite being key to crop pollination success and providing $200 billion in ecosystem services annually. Functional diversity (FD) is used to quantify diversity of functional traits within species assemblages and act as an indicator of ecosystem function and community assembly processes. At the species level, floral traits (morphology, color, reward to pollinators) influence pollinator communities. At the community level, abundance and richness of flowering resources as well as their spatial and temporal distribution are important determinants of pollinator abundance and species diversity, and ultimately of pollination success. Few studies have examined the impact of plant FD on bee FD, which has implications for imperiled prairie ecosystems and pollinators. This study aims to analyze plant and bee FD by sampling bee species present in an experimental site that manipulates plant richness and FD.

Results/Conclusions

Plant species were selected from the most common species found in a real-world restored prairie, FD of plant assemblies within an experimental prairie consisting of 156 plots was calculated, and plots containing high and low levels of FD (52 each, with 52 plots as control) were determined. Bees are categorized according to 10 genera found at the prairie site and approximate body size. As plant functional traits, such as those that influence size and structure, predict bee functional traits, such as feeding niche and body size, I hypothesize bee richness and diversity will be determined by flowering phenology, corolla depth, and nectar content. If this is the case, plants within plots with a greater diversity of those traits will host a greater diversity of bee species. These data will be used to create a model that accurately predicts plant-pollinator relationships and informs biodiversity and land management practices in restored prairies. As studies focus on pollinator interactions involving a few plant species rather than the larger plant community that comprises the plant-pollinator network, scientists, conservationists, and land managers will benefit from knowing which plant assemblies bees prefer, and management strategies can be developed to protect or create habitat for native bees.