If you build it, will they come? Insect community responses to habitat establishment at solar energy facilities in Minnesota, USA
-
Published:2023-12-18
Issue:1
Volume:19
Page:014053
-
ISSN:1748-9326
-
Container-title:Environmental Research Letters
-
language:
-
Short-container-title:Environ. Res. Lett.
Author:
Walston Leroy JORCID,
Hartmann Heidi MORCID,
Fox Laura,
Macknick JordanORCID,
McCall JamesORCID,
Janski Jake,
Jenkins LaurenORCID
Abstract
Abstract
Global declines in insect populations have important implications for biodiversity and food security. To offset these declines, habitat restoration and enhancement in agricultural landscapes could mutually safeguard insect populations and their pollination services for crop production. The expansion of utility-scale solar energy development in agricultural landscapes presents an opportunity for the dual use of the land for energy production and biodiversity conservation through the establishment of grasses and forbs planted among and between the photovoltaic solar arrays (‘solar-pollinator habitat’). We conducted a longitudinal field study across 5 years (2018–2022) to understand how insect communities responded to newly established habitat on solar energy facilities in agricultural landscapes by evaluating (1) temporal changes in flowering plant abundance and diversity; (2) temporal changes in insect abundance and diversity; and (3) the pollination services of solar-pollinator habitat by comparing pollinator visitation to agricultural fields near solar-pollinator habitat with other agricultural field locations. We found increases over time for all habitat and biodiversity metrics: floral rank, flowering plant species richness, insect group diversity, native bee abundance, and total insect abundance, with the most noticeable temporal increases in native bee abundance. We also found positive effects of proximity to solar-pollinator habitat on bee visitation to nearby soybean (Glycine max) fields. Bee visitation to soybean flowers adjacent to solar-pollinator habitat were comparable to bee visitation to soybeans adjacent to grassland areas enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, and greater than bee visitation to soybean field interior and roadside soybean flowers. Our observations highlight the relatively rapid (<4 year) insect community responses to grassland restoration activities and provide support for solar-pollinator habitat as a feasible conservation practice to safeguard biodiversity and increase food security in agricultural landscapes.
Funder
Solar Energy Technologies Office
Subject
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health,General Environmental Science,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Reference57 articles.
1. Solar futures study;[DOE] U.S. Department of Energy,2021
2. Form EIA-860 detailed data for 2021;[EIA] Energy Information Administration,2023
3. Solar PV power potential is greatest over croplands;Adeh;Sci. Rep.,2019
4. Diversity and abundance of wild bees in an agriculturally dominated landscape of eastern Colorado;Arathi;J. Insect Conserv.,2019
5. A global mitigation hierarchy for nature conservation;Arlidge;BioScience,2018