Plant and insect community responses to manure application in prairies
Date
2023-08
Authors
Bogert, Melanie
Major Professor
Advisor
Schulte, Lisa A
Tyndall, John C
O'Neal, Matthew E
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Abstract
Declining insect diversity and abundance in the Midwest is connected to a regional lack of supporting habitat. An innovative best management practice (BMP) that is being explored to simultaneously improve insect habitat and minimize nutrient and sediment loss at field scales is prairie strips. This conservation practice integrates small amounts of native, diverse, perennial vegetation (i.e., prairie) into agriculture fields and provides disproportionate environmental benefits, namely soil, water, and wildlife habitat quality. Despite the promising findings in terms of field-level water quality benefits and biodiversity, adoption of prairie strips and other vegetative BMPs is relatively low; a primary reason for this may be cost. In response, new ways to incentivize this important perennial practice are being explored. One potential opportunity for this is applying manure to prairie ecosystems. Manure application in prairie strips could create opportunities for prairie-derived biomass for biogas production while acting as a means of incremental manure disposal that decreases the typical environmental consequences associated with manure application. One possible challenge of applying manure to prairie ecosystems is that there may be negative outcomes associated with biodiversity, namely plant morphology and community composition and beneficial insect diversity and abundance. Our objective with this study was to apply different rates of dairy manure to native, perennial plant communities which are commonly used to establish prairie strips and evaluate the impacts on floral abundance, plant growth, plant community structure, insect community abundance, and insect activity density. The results of these studies showed varying effects on plant community characteristics depending on plant species and insect feeding guild. Overall, these results will contribute to conservation efforts in Iowa and surrounding states as they continue working to restore native habitat in a cost-effective way.
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