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The potential for elevated soil salinity to enhance the ecological trap effect of roadside pollinator habitat
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The potential for elevated soil salinity to enhance the ecological trap effect of roadside pollinator habitat
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Journal Article
The potential for elevated soil salinity to enhance the ecological trap effect of roadside pollinator habitat
2024
Overview
The management of roadside habitat may be an important component of the conservation of declining pollinators, but insect mortality along roadsides can be high, creating a potential “ecological trap.” Runoff from winter applications of deicing salt can increase soil salinity along roadsides, and if this results in higher sodium levels in floral nectar, it could increase the attractiveness of roadside plants to pollinators, possibly accentuating the ecological trap effect. We compared the soil salinity in a highway median to soil collected from nearby fields and compared the Na
+
concentrations in nectar from common milkweed (
Asclepias syriaca
) from these two habitats. We also manipulated soil salinity in field populations of
A. syriaca
by adding brine solution to document changes in nectar Na
+
and pollinator visitation. We found that soil salinity in the median of a highway in Clarke County, VA was 2.3 times higher than the salinity of field soil, however nectar from
A. syriaca
in the two habitats did not differ significantly in Na
+
concentration. Addition of brine to field soil increased soil salinity 17-fold and significantly increased the level of Na
+
in
A. syriaca
nectar. Pollinators visited
A. syriaca
umbels that received the brine treatment twice as frequently as controls. Implications for insect conservation: We conclude that elevated soil salinity is capable of increasing nectar Na
+
and the attractiveness of
A. syriaca
flowers to insect pollinators, but roadside soil salinity in our study was not high enough to enhance an ecological trap effect of roadside vegetation.
