The Influence of Land Management Practices on the Abundance and Diversity of Fall-Blooming Asteraceae and Their Pollinators

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The Influence of Land Management Practices on the Abundance and Diversity of Fall-Blooming Asteraceae and Their Pollinators THE INFLUENCE OF LAND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON THE ABUNDANCE AND DIVERSITY OF FALL-BLOOMING ASTERACEAE AND THEIR POLLINATORS Julie Jung Professor Joan Edwards, Advisor A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Biology WILLIAMS COLLEGE Williamstown, MA May 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................5 II. Abstract..........................................................................................................................6 III. Introduction.................................................................................................................7 A. Study Overview...................................................................................................7 B. A Global Pollinator Crisis ..................................................................................8 a. Main Drivers of Pollinator Decline.......................................................11 i. Pathogen Spillover....................................................................11 ii. Parasites.....................................................................................12 iii. Pesticides...................................................................................13 iv. Anthropogenic Land Use Change……………………..……...14 1. Habitat Loss and Pollination Limitation….………..…15 2. Cascades of Decline…………………...……………...15 b. Habitat Loss in New England................................................................16 c. Conservation Policy..............................................................................18 d. Study Objective & Hypothesis..............................................................20 C. Study Organisms...............................................................................................23 a. Plants.....................................................................................................23 i. The Family Asteraceae............................................................. 23 ii. The Genera Solidago and Euthamia......................................... 24 b. Pollinators..............................................................................................27 i. Case Study: Natural History of Apis mellifera………………..27 1. Life Cycle..................................................................... 28 2. Anatomy....................................................................... 30 3. Pollination.................................................................... 32 ii. Case Study: Natural History of Bombus sp...............................33 1. Life Cycle......................................................................34 2. Anatomy........................................................................36 3. Pollination.....................................................................37 IV. Methods......................................................................................................................39 A. Study Site….....................................................................................................39 B. Site History......................................................................................................39 C. Treatments & Experimental Procedure............................................................41 D. Spatial Distribution Study................................................................................43 E. Pollinator Activity Study.................................................................................45 2 V. Results..........................................................................................................................48 A. Flowering Stems...............................................................................................48 a. Abundance by Treatment.......................................................................48 b. Spatial Distribution Maps of Each Plot.................................................52 c. Patch Size...............................................................................................57 d. Height of Tallest Plant in Each Quadrat................................................62 e. Floral Diversity, Richness, and Evenness..............................................63 f. Rank Abundance Analysis/Dominance Diversity Curve.......................67 B. Pollinator Visitors.............................................................................................68 a. Abundance by Treatment.......................................................................68 b. Pollinator Diversity, Richness, and Evenness........................................69 c. Rank Abundance Analysis/Dominance Diversity Curve.......................73 d. Rarefaction Curve..................................................................................75 VI. Discussion...................................................................................................................76 A. Flowering Stems...............................................................................................76 B. Pollinator Visitors.............................................................................................80 VII. Conclusion................................................................................................................81 VIII. References...............................................................................................................82 IX. Appendices.................................................................................................................86 Appendix 1: Spatial Distribution Maps (16 + 4 grouped).....................................86 Appendix 2: Pollinator Key...................................................................................95 Part A: Family Apidae (6)..........................................................................95 Part B: Family Halictidae (2)...................................................................100 Part C: Family Vespidae (3) ...................................................................101 Part D: Unknown Wasps (3) ...................................................................104 Part E: Family Syrphidae (8) ..................................................................107 Part F: Family Tachnidae (1) ..................................................................111 Part G: Family Hesperiidae (1) ...............................................................112 Part H: Family Pieridae (1) .....................................................................113 Part I: Family Membracidae (1) ..............................................................114 Part J: Family Tettifoniidae (1) ...............................................................115 Part K: Family Choccinelldae (1) ...........................................................116 Part L: Unknown Beetles (3) ..................................................................116 Part M: Family Formicidae (1) ...............................................................118 Part N: Unknown Spider (1) ...................................................................118 Part O: Unknowns (15) ...........................................................................119 3 Appendix 3: R Scripts..........................................................................................126 Part A: FloweringStemsbyTreatment.R...................................................126 Part B: SpatialDistribAllPlots.R .............................................................136 Part C: Clumping.R .................................................................................141 Part D: Height.R.......................................................................................152 Part E: floweringstemdiversity.R (includes rarefaction plot)..................156 Part F: RankAbundanceStems.R..............................................................168 Part G: PollinatorVisitors.R.....................................................................174 Part H: pollinatordiversity.R (includes rarefaction plot) ........................184 Part I: RankAbundanceVisitors.R............................................................202 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A million thanks to Professor Joan Edwards for selflessly sharing her love of Ecological systems. Every hour of her counseling and company in the field made me positive I want to make a career out of being a buglady. Her teachings at times made the top of my head tingle and her endless enthusiasm and overflowing knowledge about pollinator plant dynamics constantly kept me curious. Her warmth and wisdom are truly inspiring. Moreover, she understood my sorrow when I discovered that when bumble bees buzz in petri dishes it sounds like they’re yelling for help and when butterflies are euthanized their struggle makes their scales shed slowly. This section couldn’t be complete without a word about Professor David Smith. Even when I would stop by without notice outside of his normal office hours (when he was technically on sabbatical) desperately seeking R-help, he would happily help me write and understand my code. I thank him for countlessly going above and beyond his call of duty. I thank Drew Jones and his Hopkins Memorial Forest Fall 2014 crew for laying out 2704 flags at the weather station field site in preparation for collecting spatial distribution data. I also appreciate
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