Surveying pollinator communities in production soybean fields: A Kansas perspective

Surveying pollinator communities in production soybean fields:  a Kansas perspective

Ryan Hackett and Brian P McCornack,

Entomology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

Complex habitats are known to sustain greater diversity of pollinator communities, but current agricultural practices limit these resources by increasing monocultures such as soybeans, Glycine max. Although soybean plants are not directly dependent on pollination for seed production, soybean flowers might serve as a resource for existing native pollinator communities given their dominance in the landscape. The goal of this research was to assess diversity and abundance of native pollinators present in soybean fields with varying landscape complexity. Twelve fields, which fit our land-use criteria of simple to diverse, were selected in four distinct geographic locations in North-Eastern Kansas. All fields were sampled monthly from June to September. The experimental design consisted of a RCBD, with 5 blocks that contained three passive sampling techniques; 1 blue vane trap, 3 pan traps (yellow, blue and white), and 1 yellow sticky trap. Blocks were assigned to each cardinal direction on field edges and one in the center of the field. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index was used to compare bee diversity and abundance among blocks and between fields; repeated measures analysis of variance will be used to quantify changes in bee genus richness among fields through time. Preliminary observations indicate there will be greater abundance of genera in vane traps, followed by pan traps and yellow sticky cards, respectively. We hypothesize that landscape complexity will significantly shape pollinator communities and we expect to find greater diversity of bee genera in soybean fields surrounded by complex landscapes. Implications from these results will be discussed.