Strip management of wildflower strips promotes beneficial arthropods in the late season via enhanced floral resources

However, despite the need for active vegetation management to maintain high flower abundance and stable arthropod populations, evidence on different management techniques is limited. Here, we assessed the impact of three management schemes (whole-strip mulching, strip mulching, and strip mowing) on the species richness, abundance, and community composition of six beneficial arthropod taxa (three pollinator groups and three predator groups).

In a 2-year manipulative experiment with 24-m-wide wildflower strips, we sampled multi-taxa arthropod communities using complementary sampling methods in the early, mid, and late seasons and quantified floral abundance and vegetation height. Overall, we found that strip management of wildflower strips was associated with higher late-season richness and abundance of most taxa than full mulching. These benefits were mostly linked to enhanced floral resources, whereas spiders were associated with vegetation height.