Spartan Scientists Contribute to Global Examination of Pollinator Habitat

Michigan State University Distinguished Professor Rufus Isaacs and CANR alumna Gabriela Quinlan (Ph.D. ’20), now an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, collaborated with researchers from 19 countries to develop a framework for informing conservation policies to increase the quantity and enhance the quality of pollinator habitat in agricultural landscapes.

Pollinator habitat is essential for maintaining beneficial insect populations and supporting critical ecosystem functions, but habitat protection targets are often varied and poorly defined. The research team sought to develop a framework to assess habitat quantity needs and the threshold at which populations respond more to increased habitat quality than quantity.

A team of more than 80 researchers provided and synthesized data from 59 studies to define minimum the habitat thresholds needed to support healthy insect pollinator populations on various agricultural landscapes across the United States and in areas around the world. The paper, ‘Critical habitat thresholds for effective pollinator conservation in agricultural landscapes,’ was published in Science in September.