The impacts of bioenergy pine plantation management practices on bee communities

Loy, Xingwen; Gruenewald, David L.; Gottlieb, Isabel G. W.; Dobbs, Emily K.; Miljanic, Andriana S.; Botsch, Jamieson C.; Lawley, Brice; Ober, Holly K.; Smith, Lora L.; Fletcher, Robert J.; Brosi, Berry J.

doi:10.1111/1365-2664.13586

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Dead wood represents one of the most important resources to forest insect communities (Ulyshen, 2018) and is known to provide critical nesting sites for several of the bee species captured in this study (e.g., Lasioglossum subviridatum (Cockerell), L. coeruleum (Robertson), Augochlora pura (Say), and Osmia spp.). This possibility is further supported by previous studies documenting higher bee diversity in areas with abundant dead wood (Grundel et al, 2010;Loy et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

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Effects of Rhododendron removal and prescribed fire on bees and plants in the southern Appalachians

Ulyshen

Elliott

Scott

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Rhododendron maximum is an evergreen shrub native to the Appalachian Mountains of North America that has expanded in recent decades due to past disturbances and land management. The purpose of this study was to explore how bees and plants were affected by the experimental removal of R . maximum followed by a prescribed fire in one watershed compared to a neighboring reference watershed. Bees and plants were sampled for three years in both watersheds. Comparisons were based on the rarefaction and extrapolation sampling curves of Hill numbers as well as multivariate methods to assess effects on community composition. Bee richness, Shannon's diversity, and Simpson's diversity did not differ between watersheds in the year after removal but were all significantly higher in the removal watershed in year two, following the prescribed fire. Bee Shannon's diversity and Simpson's diversity, but not richness, remained significantly higher in the removal watershed in the third year. Similar but weaker patterns were observed for plants. Comparisons of community composition found significant differences for bees in the second and third year and significant differences for plants in all three years. For both groups, significant indicator taxa were mostly associated with the removal watershed. Because bees appeared to respond more strongly to the prescribed fire than to the removal of R . maximum and these benefits weakened considerably one year after the fire, clearing R . maximum does not appear to dramatically improve pollinator habitat in the southern Appalachians. This conclusion is underscored by the fact that about one quarter of the bee species in our study area were observed visiting R . maximum flowers. The creation of open areas with wildflowers may be a better way to benefit bees in this region judging from the high diversity of bees captured in the small roadside clearings in this study.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…coeruleum (Robertson), Augochlora pura (Say), and Osmia spp.). This possibility is further supported by previous studies documenting higher bee diversity in areas with abundant dead wood (Grundel et al, 2010 ; Loy et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Effects of Rhododendron removal and prescribed fire on bees and plants in the southern Appalachians

Ulyshen

Elliott

Scott

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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“…As part of a large investigation on bioenergy and biodiversity (Gottlieb et al 2017, Miljanic et al 2019, Loy et al 2020), we collected bat occurrence and activity data from 84 study sites stratified across three broad geographic regions situated in the Southern Coastal Plains and Southeastern Plains ecoregions in the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, USA (Fig. 1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, pine plantations in the Southeast are typically thinned (i.e., tree density is reduced for the first time commercially between ages 12 and 16 to promote growth of remaining trees; Antony et al 2011, Amateis and Carlson 2014), and this harvested material is a potential source of biomass for bioenergy production. The energy yield obtained from each of these three biomass production pathways varies (Eisenbies et al 2009, Munsell and Fox 2010), and the nature of their impacts on biodiversity is presumed to vary as well (Verschuyl et al 2011, Riffell et al 2011 a , b , Gottlieb et al 2017, Loy et al 2020, Nuñez‐Regueiro et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bat community response to intensification of biomass production for bioenergy across the southeastern United States

Ober

Jones

Gottlieb

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

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Human demand for food, fiber, and space is accelerating the rate of change of land cover and land use. Much of the world now consists of a matrix of natural forests, managed forests, agricultural cropland, and urbanized plots. Expansion of domestic energy production efforts in the United States is one driver predicted to influence future land-use and land management practices across large spatial scales. Favorable growing conditions make the southeastern United States an ideal location for producing a large portion of the country's renewable bioenergy. We investigated patterns of bat occurrence in two bioenergy feedstocks commonly grown in this region (corn, Zea mays, and pine, Pinus taeda and P. elliottii). We also evaluated potential impacts of the three major pathways of woody biomass extraction (residue removal following clearcut harvest, short-rotation energy plantations, and mid-rotation forest thinning) to bat occurrence through a priori land-use contrasts. We acoustically sampled bat vocalizations at 84 sites in the Southeastern Plains and Southern Coastal Plains of the southeastern United States across three years. We found that mid-rotation thinning resulted in positive effects on bat occurrence, and potential conversion of unmanaged (reference) forest to managed forest for timber and/or bioenergy harvest resulted in negative effects on bat occurrence when effects were averaged across all species. The effects of short-rotation energy plantations, removal of logging residues from plantation clearcuts, and corn were equivocal for all bat species examined. Our results suggest that accelerated production of biomass for energy production through either corn or intensively managed pine forests is not likely to have an adverse effect on bat communities, so long as existing older unmanaged forests are not converted to managed bioenergy or timber plantations. Beyond bioenergy crop production, mid-rotation thinning of even-aged pine stands intended for timber production, increases to the duration of plantation rotations to promote older forest stands, arranging forest stands and crop fields to maximize edge habitat, and maintaining unmanaged forests could benefit bat communities by augmenting roosting and foraging opportunities.

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“…Sam Droege identified many specimens (particularly Lasioglossum) to species and confirmed identification of 100% of our Dialictus specimens. Additional details are in Loy et al (2020).…”

Section: Biodiversity Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conserving alpha and beta diversity in wood‐production landscapes

Jones

Brosi

Evans

et al. 2022

Conservation Biology

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International demand for wood and other forest products continues to grow rapidly, and uncertainties remain about how animal communities will respond to intensifying resource extraction associated with woody bioenergy production. We examined changes in alpha and beta diversity of bats, bees, birds, and reptiles across wood production landscapes in the southeastern United States, a biodiversity hotspot that is one of the principal sources of woody biomass globally. We sampled across a spatial gradient of paired forest land‐uses (representing pre and postharvest) that allowed us to evaluate biological community changes resulting from several types of biomass harvest. Short‐rotation practices and residue removal following clearcuts were associated with reduced alpha diversity (−14.1 and −13.9 species, respectively) and lower beta diversity (i.e., Jaccard dissimilarity) between land‐use pairs (0.46 and 0.50, respectively), whereas midrotation thinning increased alpha (+3.5 species) and beta diversity (0.59). Over the course of a stand rotation in a single location, biomass harvesting generally led to less biodiversity. Cross‐taxa responses to resource extraction were poorly predicted by alpha diversity: correlations in responses between taxonomic groups were highly variable (−0.2 to 0.4) with large uncertainties. In contrast, beta diversity patterns were highly consistent and predictable across taxa, where correlations in responses between taxonomic groups were all positive (0.05–0.4) with more narrow uncertainties. Beta diversity may, therefore, be a more reliable and information‐rich indicator than alpha diversity in understanding animal community response to landscape change. Patterns in beta diversity were primarily driven by turnover instead of species loss or gain, indicating that wood extraction generates habitats that support different biological communities.

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The impacts of bioenergy pine plantation management practices on bee communities

Cited by 13 publications

References 61 publications

Effects of Rhododendron removal and prescribed fire on bees and plants in the southern Appalachians

Effects of Rhododendron removal and prescribed fire on bees and plants in the southern Appalachians

Bat community response to intensification of biomass production for bioenergy across the southeastern United States

Conserving alpha and beta diversity in wood‐production landscapes

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