6: Evaluating the impact of augmented pollinator habitat on surrounding cropping systems

Agricultural intensification has increased over at least the last 170 years, which has led to major impacts on the planet's basic ecosystem functioning. While the agricultural system has seen an increased reliance on animal pollination, pollinator populations have declined globally. To combat this, adding pollinator habitat into the agricultural landscape has become increasingly popular, but many questions about their functional utility and impact in the greater agroecosystem remain. Our study uses pollinator habitat on experimental research stations to evaluate their impact on pollinator communities within a nearby cropping system (soybeans) and the resulting impact on yield. We found that the pollinator communities within the habitat were significantly different than the communities in the crop, but the presence of this habitat still had a positive effect on soybean yield quality, and quantity. The total number of beans per plant was 14.61% higher and the average weight of those beans was 6.53% higher in fields planted more proximately to the pollinator habitat and in fields with higher bee diversity. Furthermore, the proportion of beans deformed per plant was 20.14% lower in fields closer to the habitat. More than 30 species of bees were found foraging on soybeans, and identification of pollen grains off a subset of these species shows that bees are actively collecting soybean pollen when in the crop fields. These findings highlight the importance of considering pollinators in crops considered to have low or moderate pollinator dependency, as they may still benefit from and be attractive to pollinator communities.