Native vegetation embedded in landscapes dominated by corn and soybean improves honey bee health and productivity

作者：Ge Zhang, Caroline Jaye Murray, Ashley L. St. Clair, Randall P Cass, Adam G. Dolezal, Lisa A. Schulte, Amy L. Toth, Matthew E. O’Neal · 发表于：Journal of Applied Ecology · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1111/1365-2664.14397 · 被引用次数：23 · 研究领域：Plant and animal studies、Insect and Pesticide Research、Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior

Abstract Balancing demand for food while supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services in landscapes committed to crop production may require integrating conservation with agriculture. Adding strips of diverse, native, perennial vegetation, through the recently created prairie strips practice of the U.S. Conservation Reserve Program, into annual cropland reduces soil and nutrient loss, and supports more diverse and abundant communities of birds and insects, including native pollinators. It remains unclear if prairie strips can reverse declines in the health and productivity of the exotic honey bee in the U.S. This study determined if prairie strips provide floral resources to honey bees and support colony vigour, in a highly farmed landscape with limited perennial habitat. We hypothesized that honey bee health and productivity would be improved if given access to prairie strips, and this hypothesis was tested in a multi‐year, replicated, longitudinal study on commercial, conventional farms committed to corn and soybean production with and without prairie strips. We predicted that prairie strips would have more diverse flowering plants, and colonies located in these strips would be healthier and more productive than colonies kept at farms without purposefully established native vegetation (i.e. control fields). We found that prairie strips had more diverse flowering plants and abundant floral resources than control fields. Colonies kept at fields with prairie strips collected...