Postdoctoral Research Scholar North Carolina State University Raleigh, North Carolina
Wildflower plantings are an increasingly popular method for enhancing pollinator communities in the margins of managed turfgrass systems. Despite this, the composition of insect communities in these wildflower plantings remains poorly described, leaving land managers with little information about potential outcomes of adding wildflower plantings to the landscape. We examined a multi-year collection of insects captured between 2018 and 2020 in turfgrass stands in North Carolina, with individuals collected both pre- and post-establishment of a wildflower plot. Sites included golf course and home lawn settings and specimens were collected using pan traps and sweep netting. We compared the abundance of insect families and functional groups across years. We also compared the effect of collection methods on the consequential picture of the insect community. The results of this study will provide insight into the effect of wildflower plantings on insect communities in turfgrass systems. We also discuss potential biases of different methods for monitoring pollinators in turfgrass margins, with the goal of providing recommendations to managers hoping to maximinze the biodiversity of wildflower plantings.