Floral Censuses and Surveys of Insect Visitors to Flowers, University of Michigan Biological Station, Summers 1984-1986

I investigated within- and between-year patterns of flowering phenology of plants and the insects that visited them in an isolated old field in northern Michigan, USA. The project goal was to document the dynamics of resource availabilty (each floral species produced nectar and/or pollen) and assess the implications of its temporal variation on the composition of the community of insects that exploited those resources. I censued the number of open flowers for each species in 50 4-m2 quadrats at 3- 5-day intervals from June-September 1984-1986, and in separate but contemporaneous surveys of the same quadrats recorded each insect species observed on any open flower. Census and survey details noted below.