Emergent wetland pollinators: An unknown story

Insect pollinators are essential to the nation's native plants and agricultural crops. Pollination is required to produce at least 30% of the U.S. human food supply. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) has been at the center of attention for decades, but native bees are often much better pollinators than honey bees and are vital to the survival of specialized plants. Though cotton, rice, and soybeans are considered autogamous (self-pollinating), cross-breeding (via pollinators) helps increase yield, produce more viable seed, and enhance genetic diversity of the crop. Sometimes emergent wetlands occur adjacent to croplands in the southeastern United States and create valuable floral resources for pollinators. Some wetlands are intensively managed by public agencies for annual plants that produce abundant seed resources for migratory waterfowl, moist substrate for shorebird foraging, and breeding grounds for amphibians. Programs like the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (formerly the wetland reserve program) seek to reestablish native plant communities, improve water quality, and provide habitat, but their role in creating floral resources for pollinators has been overlooked. Pollinator communities that use wetlands have been poorly documented and their benefits to surrounding lands are not understood. Our project seeks to document and compare pollinator communities in native and managed emergent wetlands of the  Mississippi Alluvial Valley and secondly their role in pollinating crops in sites adjacent to managed wetlands. We predict that pollinator diversity will be greatest in native as compared to managed emergent wetlands and that relative floral resources diversity and levels will drive local pollinator diversity.