Integrated vegetation management within electric power transmission rights-of-way promotes the abundance and richness of floral resources and flower-visiting insects

Authors: KIMMEL, CHASE - University Of Florida; DE BEM OLIVEIRA, IVONE - University Of Florida; Campbell, Joshua; KHAZAN, EMILY - University Of Florida; BREMER, JONATHAN - University Of Florida; ROSSETTI, KRISTIN - University Of Florida; STANDRIDGE, MATT - University Of Florida; EPSTEIN, SAMM - University Of Florida; TSALICKIS, ALEXANDRA - Auburn University; DANIELS, JARET - University Of Florida

Submitted to: PLOS ONE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/26/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Power lines are found throughout the United States and the vegetation is actively managed within all power lines. Ideal vegetation for power companies is considered to be low to the ground and in an early successional state. How bees and other pollinators utilize the land underneath power lines is unclear and how changing vegetation would affect pollinator communities is also unknown. We evaluated 18 different power line sites in Florida that had varying degrees of vegetation management (no management to intense management). Overall, we found power lines with intensive vegetation management resulting in more flowering plants and less woody debris harbored a more abundant and diverse pollinator community. Thus, properly managing power line vegetation could help conserve native bees and other insect pollinators.

Technical Abstract: Electrical transmission rights-of-way (ROW) or powerline ROW are ubiquitous and critical infrastructure across the landscape. Active vegetation management of ROW, a necessity to deliver electricity more safely, maintains these landscape features as stages of early successional habitat, a rarity in many regions. To generate conservation management inferences and to evaluate the effects of different management practices on flowering plant and flower-visiting insect abundance and richness, we evaluated 18 sites across three levels of vegetation management along ROW in habitat representative of the southern coastal plains in the United States. We show that we can align social and ecological values, ensuring the sustainability of ROW landscapes by applying high vegetation management, which favored the reduction of coarse woody debris in the sites and harbored the highest level of abundance and richness of both floral resources and flower-visiting insects. Thus, regular and targeted management of ROW is not only an effective management strategy for the delivery of essential services, but also provides conservation benefits for wild pollinators.