Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Tamaulipan thornscrub forest is a unique plant association in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas that is considered a biodiversity hotspot. Only 5% of the original cover remains, making preservation and restoration a conservation priority. Restoration efforts by the US Fish and Wildlife Service by replanting selected thornscrub species have been ongoing for 40 years. However, a lack of information regarding floral resources used by pollinators has prevented support for the pollinator community in reforestation efforts. We will use surveys to determine flower phenology and observations of insect pollinators to provide an initial characterization of insect pollinators and their use of flowering plants in preserved and restored patches of thornscrub. Additionally, a barcoding library of flowering plants in thornscrub forests will be constructed. Barcodes are short DNA sequences that allow identification of plants from pollen or other plant tissues. The barcodes can then be used to determine what species of plants are being utilized by different pollinators based on collected pollen, a powerful tool for analysis of plant choice by both honey bees and native pollinators. The current work will provide important information on plant choice by different functional groups of insect pollinators, as well as blooming periods and availability of floral resources. These data can then be used to inform the choice of species for reforestation improving both the health and diversity of pollinators and restoration outcomes by increasing pollinator services to both the thornscrub plant community and agricultural fields.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
0%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this proposal is to obtain initial data to identify and assess the importance of native plant species of the Tamalipan thornscrub that support native insect pollinators and honey bees to inform reforestation efforts. The specific objectives for this proposal are1) Identification and characterization of native plants used by pollinators in thornscrub communities, and2) To develop a barcode library for native plants to be used for identifying plants and pollen
Project Methods
Repeated surveys will identify blooming plants (including trees) in the thornscrub and determine if they are being utilized by pollinators. An adaptation of the point transect sampling method recommended for sparsely distributed targets will be used for estimating abundance and density of blooming individuals of each species. Phenological variables to be determined include the species' total flowering period length, mean flowering period length, and intra and interspecific synchrony of flower phenology. These variables will serve to preliminarily rank species in terms of their importance as a floral resource. To assess the use of thornforest plants by pollinators, several individuals of multiple species will be observed for 30 min using both time lapse cameras and observers. Pollinators will be placed into categories/functional groups including: honey bees (Apis mellifera), native bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, moths, and other. Visit frequency by functional groups will be compared among plant species and will serve to rank them in terms of pollinator preferences.Barcoding allows for the identification of plant species through the use of genetic "barcodes" - unique DNA sequences. Producing barcodes for plants native to the Tamaulipan thornscrub, will allow for identification of plants that contribute to the pollen collected by pollinators. The initial plant list for barcoding will include 1) plants used by the USFWS for reforestation efforts in the LRGV; 2) plants observed in remaining or rehabilitated patches of thornscrub during the observations carried out in this project; and 3) plants described as being part of the thornscrub habitat in other literature. Barcodes will be determined using established best practices including sequencing of coding regions within the rbcL (ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase large subunit) and matK (maturase K) genes, and the transcribed spacer region of nuclear ribosomal DNA, the ITS2 sequence. The sequences will be annotated and uploaded to the BOLD and GenBank public databases. As proof of principle, pollen loads from honey bee colonies maintained on the UTRGV Brownsville campus will be analyzed using metabarcoding.