Pollinator Plants and Butterfly Abundance
Wildlife Ecology and Management Grace Kearney
Butterflies feed on nectar from grassland plants, and then spread pollen from these plants while feeding on grassland plants. Pollinator conservation has become a priority for land managers because declines in pollinators such as butterflies and bees have wide-reaching ecosystem effects. Planting pollinator plants often does not benefit pollinators in the first year due to expending most of their energy establishing roots, as opposed to flowering. I aimed to determine if planting pollinator-friendly plants would increase the abundance of butterflies on planted sites in the year that they were planted. I hypothesized that butterfly abundance would not differ in planted sites when compared to unplanted sites. In June 2024, I planted 400 individual pollinator-friendly plants: common milkweed ( Asclepias syriaca ), butterfly milkweed ( Asclepias tuberosa ), Lead Plant ( Amorpha canescens ), stiff sunflower ( Helianthus pauciflorus ), meadow blazing star ( Liatris ligulistylis ), wild bergamot ( Monarda fistulosa ), and hoary vervain ( Verbena stricta ), to restore prairie habitat with the Minnesota DNR. The planted and unplanted sites both have similar natural flora and fauna and are both prairie sites. I tracked butterfly abundance by walking transects and identifying every butterfly observed at both sites. I used a two-sample T-test with an alpha value of 0.05 and found that butterfly abundance was similar at the planted and unplanted site (t16=0.8845, p=0.3895). I recommend that butterfly surveys continue for the next several years to see if butterfly abundance increases over time. As the plants become established, butterflies might find them easier and use them at a higher rate.
Advisors: Jessica Holmes, Tower Area Wildlife Manager MN DNR Shelli Dubay, Ph.D.
Subject Area: Wildlife
Type: Poster
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UW-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources
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