Entomology Commons^™

Local And Landscape Effects On Butterfly Abundance In Cp-42 Plantings, Emma Simpson, Kate Sinnott, Mark Myers

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

The conversion of grassland habitats and intensification of row crop agriculture over the last several decades have driven declines in native pollinator populations throughout the Midwestern USA. These declines in native bee and butterfly abundance have negative ecosystem consequences due to these insects’ important ecological roles as pollinators of vegetable crops and other plant life. The United States Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program Pollinator Habitat Initiative (CP-42) aims to conserve native pollinators by increasing pollinator habitat throughout the United States. However, since the program’s inception in 2011, there has been little monitoring of its effectiveness and no documentation of …