TY - JOUR
T1 - Management of overwintering cover crops influences floral resources and visitation by native bees
AU - Ellis, Katherine E.
AU - Barbercheck, Mary E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America.
PY - 2015/8/1
Y1 - 2015/8/1
N2 - The incorporation of cover crops into annual crop rotations is one practice that is used in the Mid-Atlantic United States to manage soil fertility, suppress weeds, and control erosion. Additionally, flowering cover crops have the potential to support beneficial insect communities, such as native bees. Because of the current declines in managed honey bee colonies, the conservation of native bee communities is critical to maintaining "free" pollination services. However, native bees are negatively affected by agricultural intensification and are also in decline across North America.We conducted two experiments to assess the potential of flowering cover crops to act as a conservation resource for native bees.We evaluated the effects of cover crop diversity and fall planting date on floral resource availability and visitation by native bees for overwintering flowering cover crop species commonly used in the Mid-Atlantic region. Cover crop species, crop rotation schedule, and plant diversity significantly influenced floral resource availability. Different cover crop species not only had different blooming phenologies and winter survival responses to planting date, but attracted unique bee communities. Flower density was the primary factor influencing frequency of bee visitation across cover crop diversity and fall planting date treatments. The results from these experiments will be useful for informing recommendations on the applied use of flowering cover crops for pollinator conservation purposes.
AB - The incorporation of cover crops into annual crop rotations is one practice that is used in the Mid-Atlantic United States to manage soil fertility, suppress weeds, and control erosion. Additionally, flowering cover crops have the potential to support beneficial insect communities, such as native bees. Because of the current declines in managed honey bee colonies, the conservation of native bee communities is critical to maintaining "free" pollination services. However, native bees are negatively affected by agricultural intensification and are also in decline across North America.We conducted two experiments to assess the potential of flowering cover crops to act as a conservation resource for native bees.We evaluated the effects of cover crop diversity and fall planting date on floral resource availability and visitation by native bees for overwintering flowering cover crop species commonly used in the Mid-Atlantic region. Cover crop species, crop rotation schedule, and plant diversity significantly influenced floral resource availability. Different cover crop species not only had different blooming phenologies and winter survival responses to planting date, but attracted unique bee communities. Flower density was the primary factor influencing frequency of bee visitation across cover crop diversity and fall planting date treatments. The results from these experiments will be useful for informing recommendations on the applied use of flowering cover crops for pollinator conservation purposes.
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U2 - 10.1093/ee/nvv086
DO - 10.1093/ee/nvv086
M3 - Article
C2 - 26314045
AN - SCOPUS:84944323064
SN - 0046-225X
VL - 44
SP - 999
EP - 1010
JO - Environmental entomology
JF - Environmental entomology
IS - 4
ER -