Browsing by Author "Wolfin, James"
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Item Floral Enhancement of Turfgrass Lawns for the Benefit of Bee Pollinators in Minneapolis, Minnesota(2020-01) Wolfin, JamesThe turfgrass lawn is a common feature of urban and suburban communities, often accounting for the largest green spaces by area in these landscapes. Flowering species within turfgrass lawns have the potential to serve as a source of forage for bee pollinators in urban and suburban areas. We intentionally introduced low-growing flowers to turfgrass lawns to promote bee diversity and reduce inputs, while maintaining the traditional aesthetics and recreational uses associated with lawns. We compared bee communities on lawns with naturally-occurring blooms of Trifolium repens to bee communities on florally enhanced lawns that contained Prunella vulgaris ssp. lanceolata and Thymus serpyllum in addition to T. repens. T. repens supported both wild bee communities and A. mellifera colonies, as 56 species of bees were observed on T. repens, with A. mellifera as the most common species observed. We found that florally enhanced lawns supported more diverse bee communities than lawns with just T. repens. Furthermore, the bee communities supported by florally enhanced lawns were significantly different from the bee communities supported by lawns containing just T. repens based on presence-absence (Jaccard’s dissimilarity index). Our research indicates that A. mellifera colonies and wild bee communities can be supported by allowing T. repens to bloom in turfgrass lawns, and that further steps to promote the conservation of bees can be taken by land managers by intentionally introducing low-growing flowers to lawns.Item Sustainable Athletic Fields: Turf Management and Artificial Turf Options(Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2016) Anderson, Miles; Gregory, Jackson; Libbert, Dylan; Shen, Yuwei; Bork, Matt; Gamm, Jared; Wolfin, James; Deiman, David; Kellen, Ashley; Thomas, Takara; Laskowski, Michael; Quam, Tyler; Tschida, JackThis project was completed as part of the 2016-2017 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Brooklyn Park. Brooklyn Park wanted to better manage its existing athletic fields, and is considering converting some athletic fields to synthetic turf. Brooklyn Park project lead Brad Tullberg worked with four teams of students in Dr. Eric Watkins’s HORT 4061 course, each of which conducted an independent assessment of an athletic field, developed a set of best management practices, and assessed the benefits and drawbacks of converting the field to synthetic turf. The students' combined final report and presentations are available.