Increased land use and fire suppression have resulted in a reduction of the quantity and quality of tallgrass prairies. Without fire management and restoration practices, the plant community is infiltrated by invasive and woody plants that replace native vegetation and decrease the quality of the prairie. The vegetation provides habitat and resources to all organisms within the ecosystem and contributes to intricate relationships between community members. Insects are fundamental to the prairie ecosystem by serving as pollinators, consumers, and prey. Habitat loss and change in vegetation composition has complex effects on the insect community. Understanding what vegetation composition best supports insect communities is critical to providing the best management techniques for conserving insects and improving prairie quality. In this study, we assess prairie quality by percent cover and richness of native species with the coefficient of conservatism to examine impacts on insect abundance and richness. We used sweep nets to collect insects in 25 tallgrass prairie easements in southwest Wisconsin managed by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Vegetation data was collected using the Carolina Vegetation Survey protocol. We identified the majority (85%) of insects to family, the rest to the lowest taxonomic level possible.
Results/Conclusions
Preliminary analysis of a subset of our data shows that there is a negative relationship between insect communities and higher quality prairies. Trends show that easements dominated by native plants in richness and percent cover have lower abundance and richness of insects. The trends also show that easements with a higher coefficient of conservatism have lower abundance and richness of insects. These results are contrary to what we predicted in showing a negative relationship. Further analysis of the interactions between specific insect taxa and vegetation composition will help better understand this relationship and may show different correlations of insect groups to prairie quality than the community as a whole. Collectively, these results will provide insightful information to prairie managers on how to best balance the conservation of insects and increase the quality of prairie ecosystem.