Carabids of northeastern Iowa roadsides

The Iowa DOT is planting native tallgrass prairie in the right-of-way of highways throughout Iowa to reduce road maintenance costs by reducing erosion, weeds, and snow drift, improving aesthetics, and increasing biodiversity by restoring native ecological communities. In October 2008, a roadside prairie planting was established along US-52 in extreme Northeastern Iowa from Decorah north to the Minnesota state line. Luther College has been studying the impact of this roadside prairie planting on the plant and insect communities (primarily butterflies and carabid beetles) starting with baseline sampling in the summer of 2008. This poster presents the baseline (2008) and preliminary (2009) impacts of this roadside planting on the carabid beetle assemblages in the US-52 ROW in Northeastern Iowa.