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Perennial Grass and Native Wildflowers: A Synergistic Approach to Habitat Management

Marginal agricultural land provides opportunities to diversify landscapes by producing biomass for biofuel, and through floral provisioning that enhances arthropod-mediated ecosystem service delivery. We examined the effects of local spatial context (adjacent to woodland or agriculture) and irrigati...

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Autores principales: Xavier, Shereen S., Olson, Dawn M., Coffin, Alisa W., Strickland, Timothy C., Schmidt, Jason M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5746787/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28937651
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects8040104
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author Xavier, Shereen S.
Olson, Dawn M.
Coffin, Alisa W.
Strickland, Timothy C.
Schmidt, Jason M.
author_facet Xavier, Shereen S.
Olson, Dawn M.
Coffin, Alisa W.
Strickland, Timothy C.
Schmidt, Jason M.
author_sort Xavier, Shereen S.
collection PubMed
description Marginal agricultural land provides opportunities to diversify landscapes by producing biomass for biofuel, and through floral provisioning that enhances arthropod-mediated ecosystem service delivery. We examined the effects of local spatial context (adjacent to woodland or agriculture) and irrigation (irrigation or no irrigation) on wildflower bloom and visitation by arthropods in a biofeedstocks-wildflower habitat buffer design. Twenty habitat buffer plots were established containing a subplot of Napier grass (Pennisetum perpureum Schumach) for biofeedstock, three commercial wildflower mix subplots, and a control subplot containing spontaneous weeds. Arthropods and flowers were visually observed in quadrats throughout the season. At the end of the season we measured soil nutrients and harvested Napier biomass. We found irrespective of buffer location or irrigation, pollinators were observed more frequently early in the season and on experimental plots with wildflowers than on weeds in the control plots. Natural enemies showed a tendency for being more common on plots adjacent to a wooded border, and were also more commonly observed early in the season. Herbivore visits were infrequent and not significantly influenced by experimental treatments. Napier grass yields were high and typical of first-year yields reported regionally, and were not affected by location context or irrigation. Our results suggest habitat management designs integrating bioenergy crop and floral resources provide marketable biomass and habitat for beneficial arthropods.
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spelling pubmed-57467872018-01-03 Perennial Grass and Native Wildflowers: A Synergistic Approach to Habitat Management Xavier, Shereen S. Olson, Dawn M. Coffin, Alisa W. Strickland, Timothy C. Schmidt, Jason M. Insects Article Marginal agricultural land provides opportunities to diversify landscapes by producing biomass for biofuel, and through floral provisioning that enhances arthropod-mediated ecosystem service delivery. We examined the effects of local spatial context (adjacent to woodland or agriculture) and irrigation (irrigation or no irrigation) on wildflower bloom and visitation by arthropods in a biofeedstocks-wildflower habitat buffer design. Twenty habitat buffer plots were established containing a subplot of Napier grass (Pennisetum perpureum Schumach) for biofeedstock, three commercial wildflower mix subplots, and a control subplot containing spontaneous weeds. Arthropods and flowers were visually observed in quadrats throughout the season. At the end of the season we measured soil nutrients and harvested Napier biomass. We found irrespective of buffer location or irrigation, pollinators were observed more frequently early in the season and on experimental plots with wildflowers than on weeds in the control plots. Natural enemies showed a tendency for being more common on plots adjacent to a wooded border, and were also more commonly observed early in the season. Herbivore visits were infrequent and not significantly influenced by experimental treatments. Napier grass yields were high and typical of first-year yields reported regionally, and were not affected by location context or irrigation. Our results suggest habitat management designs integrating bioenergy crop and floral resources provide marketable biomass and habitat for beneficial arthropods. MDPI 2017-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC5746787/ /pubmed/28937651 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects8040104 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Xavier, Shereen S.
Olson, Dawn M.
Coffin, Alisa W.
Strickland, Timothy C.
Schmidt, Jason M.
Perennial Grass and Native Wildflowers: A Synergistic Approach to Habitat Management
title Perennial Grass and Native Wildflowers: A Synergistic Approach to Habitat Management
title_full Perennial Grass and Native Wildflowers: A Synergistic Approach to Habitat Management
title_fullStr Perennial Grass and Native Wildflowers: A Synergistic Approach to Habitat Management
title_full_unstemmed Perennial Grass and Native Wildflowers: A Synergistic Approach to Habitat Management
title_short Perennial Grass and Native Wildflowers: A Synergistic Approach to Habitat Management
title_sort perennial grass and native wildflowers: a synergistic approach to habitat management
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5746787/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28937651
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects8040104
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