Pollen insect connections in enrichment plot

Data from understory vegetation surveys of floral resources and insects, conducted in the B11 biodiversity enrichment experiment plots in November/December 2017. In three rounds, a pair of surveyors each walked a random 10 m transect within each plot, identifying and counting all flower units (single flowers or inflorescences) within one meter of either side of the transect. Transects were allowed to change direction to conform to space limitations of the plot, e.g., to stay within small plots or when transects were near plot borders. Within the understory vegetation of each plot, a surveyor made five evenly spaced sweeps, covering ca. 1 m of vegetation each, along a randomly placed 5 m transect using a 32 cm diameter sweep net (BioForm, Nuremburg, Germany). All flying insects (i.e., excluding Formicidae) were collected and individually preserved on site in 1.5 ml Eppendorf tubes with 70% ethanol. Insects were cleansed of pollen and identified. We identified samples to family using a binocular microscope and general and region-specific guides (Goulet et al. 1993, Johnson and Triplehorn 2004, Bosuang et al. 2017). Pollen removed from insects was acetolyzed and concentrated. The resulting pollen solution was centrifuged to further concentrate the pollen and the solution at the bottom was made into a microscope slide and scanned visually for pollen and identified.