The Insect Abundance and Diversity of Native, Invasive, and Agricultural Cover Crop Plots in Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Education Center

Abstract

Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center is a working farm and environmental educational center located in Yorktown Heights, NY. Native Mountain Mint, Native Swamp Milkweed, Native Monarda, Agricultural Cover Crop, and Invasive Mugwort sites were studied to measure diversity and abundance of insects. There were three plots in this study including the native plot (Mountain Mint, Swamp Milkweed, Monarda), invasive plot (Mugwort), and the cover crop plot. Insect surveying included visual search and sweep net methods. The most flower-visiting insects were observed on the native plants compared to Agricultural Cover Crop and Invasive Mugwort. There were 108 more flower-visiting insect observations on the native plants. The number of flower-visiting insect observations was lowest in August, and highest in July. There were 90 more flower-visiting insect observations in July than in August. I ran a post hoc Tukey's HSD test and found that there was a significant difference between the richness of the dates August-June when sites were pooled (P = 0.036). I ran a post hoc Tukey's HSD test and found that there was a significant difference between both richness and shannon diversity of the native-invasive plots when all dates were pooled (richness P-value= 0.0414, shannon diversity p-value=0.0372).