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Powerline right-of-way management and flower-visiting insects: How vegetation management can promote pollinator diversity

Loss in the availability of early successional habitat is a threat to pollinator populations. Given that powerline rights-of-way (ROW) must be managed to maintain early successional habitat, preventing vegetation from interfering with electrical lines, they have the potential to provide conservation...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Russo, Laura, Stout, Hannah, Roberts, Dana, Ross, Bradley D., Mahan, Carolyn G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7787533/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33406124
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245146
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author Russo, Laura
Stout, Hannah
Roberts, Dana
Ross, Bradley D.
Mahan, Carolyn G.
author_facet Russo, Laura
Stout, Hannah
Roberts, Dana
Ross, Bradley D.
Mahan, Carolyn G.
author_sort Russo, Laura
collection PubMed
description Loss in the availability of early successional habitat is a threat to pollinator populations. Given that powerline rights-of-way (ROW) must be managed to maintain early successional habitat, preventing vegetation from interfering with electrical lines, they have the potential to provide conservation benefits for wild pollinators. Moreover, it is possible to provide conservation benefits with no additional cost to land managers. We surveyed flower-visiting insects over two years in different vegetation management treatments in a long-term research ROW to determine which best promoted pollinator abundance and species richness. We found that the ROW had stabilized in an early successional state soon after its establishment and that this early successional state could be maintained with low levels of periodic maintenance. We collected a high diversity of flower-visiting insects (126 bee species and 179 non-bee morphospecies) in six ROW plots. Higher levels of herbicide application had a negative effect on bee species richness, but low levels of herbicide application were compatible with a high abundance and species richness of flower-visiting insects, including several rare species. Moreover, this effect was seen only in the bee community, and not in non-bee flower-visiting insects. Our results suggest further research into the conservation value of ROW for pollinators is warranted. We demonstrate that there is substantial potential for pollinator conservation in ROW, compatible with low-cost vegetation management.
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spelling pubmed-77875332021-01-14 Powerline right-of-way management and flower-visiting insects: How vegetation management can promote pollinator diversity Russo, Laura Stout, Hannah Roberts, Dana Ross, Bradley D. Mahan, Carolyn G. PLoS One Research Article Loss in the availability of early successional habitat is a threat to pollinator populations. Given that powerline rights-of-way (ROW) must be managed to maintain early successional habitat, preventing vegetation from interfering with electrical lines, they have the potential to provide conservation benefits for wild pollinators. Moreover, it is possible to provide conservation benefits with no additional cost to land managers. We surveyed flower-visiting insects over two years in different vegetation management treatments in a long-term research ROW to determine which best promoted pollinator abundance and species richness. We found that the ROW had stabilized in an early successional state soon after its establishment and that this early successional state could be maintained with low levels of periodic maintenance. We collected a high diversity of flower-visiting insects (126 bee species and 179 non-bee morphospecies) in six ROW plots. Higher levels of herbicide application had a negative effect on bee species richness, but low levels of herbicide application were compatible with a high abundance and species richness of flower-visiting insects, including several rare species. Moreover, this effect was seen only in the bee community, and not in non-bee flower-visiting insects. Our results suggest further research into the conservation value of ROW for pollinators is warranted. We demonstrate that there is substantial potential for pollinator conservation in ROW, compatible with low-cost vegetation management. Public Library of Science 2021-01-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7787533/ /pubmed/33406124 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245146 Text en © 2021 Russo et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Russo, Laura
Stout, Hannah
Roberts, Dana
Ross, Bradley D.
Mahan, Carolyn G.
Powerline right-of-way management and flower-visiting insects: How vegetation management can promote pollinator diversity
title Powerline right-of-way management and flower-visiting insects: How vegetation management can promote pollinator diversity
title_full Powerline right-of-way management and flower-visiting insects: How vegetation management can promote pollinator diversity
title_fullStr Powerline right-of-way management and flower-visiting insects: How vegetation management can promote pollinator diversity
title_full_unstemmed Powerline right-of-way management and flower-visiting insects: How vegetation management can promote pollinator diversity
title_short Powerline right-of-way management and flower-visiting insects: How vegetation management can promote pollinator diversity
title_sort powerline right-of-way management and flower-visiting insects: how vegetation management can promote pollinator diversity
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7787533/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33406124
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245146
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