Due to the growing demand for renewable energy in the United States, wind power is among the fastest growing clean energy resources. Despite the push for renewable wind energy, there is currently a limited understanding of the impact wind turbines may have on an ecosystem. Studies have shown high mortality rates of birds and bats around wind farms, but we are not aware of any studies investigating insects and plants. Pollinating insects frequently choose the flowers they visit by color and tend to prefer bright white, yellow, and blue flowers, as well as blooms that reflect UV light. As most wind turbines in the United States are white, pollinators may be more attracted to the turbines, which could have detrimental effects for their predators, birds and bats. To investigate this, we addressed two questions: “What color attracts the most pollinators?” and “What type of pollinators are attracted to which color?” We used wind turbine mimics of nine colors and placed them on a hill with characteristics similar to a wind farm. Insects were caught by pairing each mimic with a corresponding trap station consisting of a vane trap and a bee cup.
Results/Conclusions
We found a greater abundance of total pollinators in the white, purple, and blue stations, and the least abundance in the green, orange, yellow, light grey, and dark grey stations. In particular, flies were most attracted to the white stations. Our results suggest that white, the color of most wind turbines in the United States, is one of the most attractive colors to pollinators. This could be detrimental to these ecosystems, as pollinating insects provide invaluable ecosystem services as keystone species in most terrestrial environments.