Submission Type
Poster
Abstract
Pollinators provide essential services for ecosystem function. Studies aimed at understanding how availability of floral resources impacts pollinators find that canopy cover impacts bees indirectly by affecting the amount of floral resources in the forest understory and directly by changing the thermal environment in which they can thermoregulate. As ectotherms the maintenance of bee body temperature depends on the distribution of patches of sun and shade throughout a landscape, which can be dependent on canopy cover. The goals of this study were to understand how variable canopy cover drives floral visitation patterns in oak savanna found in the Oak Openings Region. We recorded the number of insect visitors to Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan) plants within a set period placed in either shaded or sunlit patches across 15 sites at Kitty Todd Nature Preserve in Swanton, OH. In addition, we measured canopy cover, vegetation height, floral density, environmental and surface temperatures to relate site-specific differences in visitation to environmental factors that shape the thermal landscape. We found that whether a patch was in the sun or shade was the only environmental variable that significantly impacted visitation by bees (X2 = 14.51, df = 2, p = 0.0007065). These results indicate that plants in sunlit patches attract more bees than do those in shaded patches. Thus, plant fitness, as well as bee foraging success, which are both correlated with overall amounts of floral visitation, can be affected by management practices and natural processes that affect canopy cover.
Included in
Biodiversity Commons, Entomology Commons, Forest Management Commons, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons
Effect of Variable Canopy Cover on Floral Visitation
Pollinators provide essential services for ecosystem function. Studies aimed at understanding how availability of floral resources impacts pollinators find that canopy cover impacts bees indirectly by affecting the amount of floral resources in the forest understory and directly by changing the thermal environment in which they can thermoregulate. As ectotherms the maintenance of bee body temperature depends on the distribution of patches of sun and shade throughout a landscape, which can be dependent on canopy cover. The goals of this study were to understand how variable canopy cover drives floral visitation patterns in oak savanna found in the Oak Openings Region. We recorded the number of insect visitors to Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan) plants within a set period placed in either shaded or sunlit patches across 15 sites at Kitty Todd Nature Preserve in Swanton, OH. In addition, we measured canopy cover, vegetation height, floral density, environmental and surface temperatures to relate site-specific differences in visitation to environmental factors that shape the thermal landscape. We found that whether a patch was in the sun or shade was the only environmental variable that significantly impacted visitation by bees (X2 = 14.51, df = 2, p = 0.0007065). These results indicate that plants in sunlit patches attract more bees than do those in shaded patches. Thus, plant fitness, as well as bee foraging success, which are both correlated with overall amounts of floral visitation, can be affected by management practices and natural processes that affect canopy cover.
Comments
Gabriella Muller, Bowling Green State University
Dr. Helen Michaels, Bowling Green State University
Dr. Kevin McCluney, Bowling Green State University