Of the many roles insects serve for ecosystem function,pollination is possibly the most important service directly linked tohuman well-being. However, land use changes have contributed to thedecline of pollinators and their habitats. In agricultural landscapes thatalso support renewable energy developments such as utility-scale solarenergy [USSE] facilities, opportunities may exist to conserve insectpollinators and locally restore their ecosystem services through theimplementation of vegetation management approaches that aim toprovide and maintain pollinator habitat at USSE facilities. As afirst steptoward understanding the potential agricultural benefits of solar-pollinator habitat, we identified areas of overlap between USSE facilitiesand surrounding pollinator-dependent crop types in the United States(U.S.). Using spatial data on solar energy developments and crop typesacross the U.S., and assuming a pollinator foraging distance of 1.5 km,we identified over 3,500 km2of agricultural land near existing and planned USSE facilities that may benefit from increasedpollination services through the creation of pollinator habitat at the USSE facilities. The followingfive pollinator-dependent croptypes accounted for over 90% of the agriculture near USSE facilities, and these could benefit most from the creation of pollinatorhabitat at existing and planned USSE facilities: soybeans, alfalfa, cotton, almonds, and citrus. We discuss how our results may beused to understand potential agro-economic implications of solar-pollinator habitat. Our results show that ecosystem servicerestoration through the creation of pollinator habitat could improve the sustainability of large-scale renewable energydevelopments in agricultural landscapes.
Examining the potential for agricultural benefits from pollinator habitat at solar facilities in the United States
Year: 2019
