Abstract
Land-use change in agricultural landscapes is believed to be a
major driver of pollinator declines. In the United States,
expansion of the biofuel industry is expected to cause extensive
land-use change. Increasing energy demands have led the US
Department of Energy to enact mandates to increase cellulosic
biofuel production, which will require extensive cultivation of
fast-growing trees as feedstock. Managed forests and tree
plantations can support rich biodiversity. While we know that local
management regimes often can impact plantation wildlife, we know
little about how changes in the surrounding landscape, such as
those brought about by the rapid expansion of biofuel plantations,
impact resident communities. Furthermore, we know little about how
local management and landscape context interact to affect
biodiversity. I examined the effects of forestry management
practices associated with cellulosic biofuel production - both
local-level forest management (pine plantations, clearcuts, natural
longleaf forests, and cornfields) and landscape management - on bee
communities in 85 sites in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. I
explored the interactions between local management and landscape
context, and their effect on bee abundance and richness. I found
that both landscape composition and configuration impact both bee
abundance and richness. Percent tree cover, landscape richness,
landscape Shannon's diversity, and patch shape had significant main
effects on both bee abundance and richness. There was an
interactive effect between local and landscape management, and
these interactions may have been driven by differing impacts of
landscape heterogeneity based on the quality of local habitats.
Landscape heterogeneity may be more important for bees in
low-quality or disturbed local habitats. Future studies should
explore how landscape context and the interactions of local and
landscape management impact bee community composition and
beta-diversity. Understanding how land use changes will impact
pollinators on both a local and landscape scale is critically
important to maintaining biodiversity and ensuring resilience of
these ecosystems.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Methods
Study Sites
Bee Sampling
Passive Sampling
Active Sampling
Bee Identification
Data Analysis
Landscape Metrics
Richness and Abundance
Model Selection
Results
Buffer Radius
Landscape Metrics
Bee Abundance
Bee Richness
Discussion
Landscape Composition and Configuration
Local - Landscape Interactions
Local Habitat Quality and Landscape Context
Study Limitations
Future Work
Conclusion
Literature Cited
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
Table 4
Table 5
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Supplemental Table 1
Supplemental Table 2
Supplemental Table 3
1
6
6
9
9
9
10
10
10
12
12
13
14
14
15
16
20
20
22
23
24
25
26
26
8
11
14
17
17
7
18
18
19
19
38
38
39
About this Honors Thesis
Rights statement
- Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.
School |
|
Department |
|
Degree |
|
Submission |
|
Language |
|
Research Field |
|
关键词 |
|
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor |
|
Committee Members |
|