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Section Symposium

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Pollinators in Grazing Lands

Rotational grazing: Boon or bane for plants, pollinators, and interactions?

Wednesday, November 12, 2025
11:15 AM - 11:30 AM Pacific
Location: Oregon Convention Center, D139-140, OCC
Oral Presentation
Understanding how management alters species' biodiversity and interactions is critical for sustainable agriculture. Rangelands, which cover 30% of land worldwide, are an ideal system to investigate this as ranchers need to maximize livestock production while supporting healthy ecosystems. Grazing management alters the timing and intensity of livestock impacts on rangelands. This includes impacts on pollinators and plant-pollinator interactions. We investigated how grazing management, specifically the presence and frequency of livestock rotation, affected plant community composition, pollinator community composition, and plant-pollinator interaction networks across 19 North Texas sites on working ranches. We found that sites with more frequent rotation supported the greatest plant and pollinator richness. Few plant-pollinator interactions were shared among management strategies, indicating that each management strategy supported distinct interactions. Pollinator responses to management varied across insect orders: Hymenoptera richness was greatest at sites with more frequent rotation, while Coleoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera richness did not respond to management. This study highlights that diverse pollinators vary in their responses to management. Additionally, grazing can be managed to benefit both pollinators and ranchers. The best management strategy will be determined by ranchers’ specific conservation goals, including species of most concern, and available resources.