Do prairie strips influence the community and predation rates of insects in crop fields?

Midwestern agriculture is dominated by annual production of row crops grown in monocultures. While this approach is very productive, conventional management includes frequent disturbances to vegetation and the soil, which often associate with negative impact on soil health, water quality, and biodiversity. Conservation practices like prairie strips help conserve biodiversity, especially beneficial insects, can mitigate disturbances. Prairie strips can increase the community of beneficial insects, specifically ground beetles (Order: Coleoptera; Family Carabidae). Ground beetles can be predators of insects and weeds, contributing to biocontrol of pests. We hypothesize that cropland adjacent to prairie strips will have a more diverse, abundant community of carabids and higher predation rates compared to those adjacent to bromegrass waterways. This study will be conducted at one conventional farm growing soybeans with well-established prairie strips (i.e., sown over 3 years ago). We will measure the community between prairie strips and bromegrass waterways using pitfall traps (n=42) over four periods (June-September). We will use a survey instrument composed of cards with 10 attached European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis; Lepidoptera: Crambidae) pupae at various distances from these conservation elements to estimate predation rates. These data will reveal the magnitude at which ground beetles spillover from conservation cover into crop fields. We expect to observe differences in community composition and predation within the crop that borders prairie strips compared to bromegrass waterways. These data could help farmers make decisions regarding what type of conservation cover to establish next to a field to increase the delivery of ecosystem services.