Abstract
Pollinators are declining globally, and this decline in ecosystem services threatens the stability of agricultural and natural systems. Pollinators depend on a diversity of floral resources that are primarily found in uncultivated areas of agro‐ecosystems such as grasslands. Seasonal succession (the seasonal changes that occur in community composition and structure) of floral resources is an essential consideration for pollinator conservation within agro‐ecosystems. Different types of grasslands common within agricultural landscapes could be expected to differ in their seasonal succession of floral resources. Here we investigated how different types of grasslands important for pollinator conservation in the tallgrass prairie ecoregion (remnant prairies, reconstructed prairies, conservation grazed cattle pastures, and old fields) differ in their seasonal succession of floral resources by sampling the plant community every two weeks from 3 May through 4 October 2013. We found remnant prairies had greater richness of inflorescences when summed over the growing season, and that remnants were least similar to the other grassland types in terms of composition. Reconstructed prairies had high richness of inflorescences and exhibited the most similarity in composition to remnant prairies only during the middle of the growing season. Conservation grazed cattle pastures had more periods where turnover in composition from one survey to the next was low, indicated by the coefficient of variation in turnover throughout the season. Old fields had the lowest richness of inflorescences and were significantly different from reconstructed and remnant prairies.
Highlights
In recent decades declines in pollinators have been observed both within the Midwestern United States (Grixti et al 2009, Swengel et al 2011) and globally (Biesmeijer et al 2006, Potts et al 2010)
Given that the availability of floral resources is hypothesized to be the factor driving bee abundance and diversity in most landscapes (Roulston and Goodell 2011), the seasonal succession of these resources is an essential consideration for pollinator habitats in agricultural ecosystems (Corbet et al 1991)
Understanding how different grassland habitats contrast in their seasonal succession of floral resources will aid in understanding the utility of different grassland types for conservation of pollinators
Summary
In recent decades declines in pollinators have been observed both within the Midwestern United States (Grixti et al 2009, Swengel et al 2011) and globally (Biesmeijer et al 2006, Potts et al 2010) Mitigation of these losses requires the conservation of existing habitat, creation of new habitats, and development of management practices and conservation programs that increase pollinator resources on the landscape (Isaacs et al 2008, Bennett and Gratton 2013). Understanding how different grassland habitats contrast in their seasonal succession of floral resources will aid in understanding the utility of different grassland types for conservation of pollinators. It will aid scientists and managers in developing best practices for grassland restoration and conservation
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