Floral Resources in an Erosion Mitigation Seed Mix Enhance Wild Bee conservation: A Case Study

Pollination by bees plays a critical role in the viability of life on this planet from food crop productivity to biodiversity of ecosystems; however, their populations, globally, are in decline. Contributing factors include pesticides, climate change, diseases, and invasives, but most notable, are habitat degradation and fragmentation due to agricultural intensification and urbanization. Research has shown that conservation and restoration of land can help to restore bee abundance and diversity. One opportunity to establish habitat which will attract and provide resources for bees is eroded lands. Recommendation for restoration of eroded land usually includes planting with a number of quick growing native and non-native grasses, which do little for bee conservation. In our study, we incorporated floral resources into an erosion mitigation seed mix specifically selected for their ability to attract bees and thrive in the Piedmont region of Georgia. Plots that incorporated these flowering plants had a greater abundance, richness, and diversity of bees compared with those plots that only contained grass. Bees were 30 times more abundant in wildflower-enhanced plots. Of the flowering plants selected, the ones that survived and bloomed well were Rudbeckia hirta L. (Black-eyed Susan), Chamaecrista fasciculata (Michaux) Greene (partridge pea), Eryngium yuccifolium Michaux (rattlesnake master), Pycnanthemum muticum (Michaux) Persoon (mountain mint), and Coreopsis lanceolata (L.) R. Brown (Lanceleaf coreopsis). The most numerous bees collected by direct observation capture “bee to flower” or cross plot sweep netting “sweeps” were in the genera Lasioglossum, Halictus, and Bombus.