From 2018 - 2020, my M.Sc. research focused on how tallgrass prairie restoration affects bumble bee abundance and species diversity. We found that bumble bee abundance increased nearly 3x and diversity 2x when sites were seeded with native prairie plants. This work indicates that tallgrass prairie restoration may be an effective tool for bumble bee conservation. At the bottom of this page, check out the first of a series of publications from this collaboration!
Since 2021, my research has focused on two overarching questions: 1) Does tallgrass prairie restoration achieve the conservation goals of increasing and sustaining bumble bee populations? and 2) How does management of tallgrass prairie using prescribed fire impact bumble bee populations through food and nesting resources?
Our previous work demonstrated that bumble bee populations increase with tallgrass prairie restoration, but it is not known whether large increases in the number of bumble bees and number of species at tallgrass prairie restorations represent population growth or whether bees are attracted from the surrounding landscape.
I am answering these questions using a inter-disciplinary methods. We have continued to measure abundance and species richness, but also measured bumble bees nests to gather a more holistic understanding of the impacts of restoration and fire on bumble bee population size. We also measured additional population genetics measurements including genetic diversity, male diploidy, and intergenerational survival as indicators of population health for several species.
One of the first nests we found during my PhD research, in May 2021 in Madison, WI.
Take a peak at a Brown-Belted Bumble Bee worker inside its nest.
I walk through how I collect tissue samples from bumble bees for genetic-based analyses such as nest density, genetic diversity, and foraging distance.
Abstract: Restoration of grassland ecosystems is essential for mitigating global losses of biodiversity and is typically initiated to foster persistent, long-term increases in biodiversity. Yet, evaluating long-term impacts of restoration on biodiversity is rare, especially across sites restored using consistent methods. Evaluation of restoration outcomes is particularly important for increasing predictive capacity in restoration ecology to determine the level of restoration effort that is required to achieve both short- and long-term restoration goals. We conducted a multisite study that explicitly compared the impacts of no intervention (“passive” or “natural” recovery), low intervention (seeding native plants), and moderate intervention (seeding native plants and using fire management) at 32 restored prairies differing in the age of restoration (3–23 years). Grasslands with natural recovery have equivalent native plant species richness compared to sites with low and moderate restoration intervention, however, they have significantly lower-quality vegetation, as measured by Floristic Quality (mean C). We found that managing restored prairies with fire maintains native plant richness over time and is correlated with higher vegetation quality and presence of seeded species. Seed mixes with a high mean C score are positively correlated with plant community quality. However, seed mixes with more species are negatively correlated with the proportion of seeded species present. We found that while the degree of restoration intervention has no effect on the number of native plant species, greater levels of assisted recovery are required to produce restored prairies that resemble high-quality remnant vegetation and, especially, to maintain these successes over the long term.