Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Current Competitive Grant

Attracting pollinators and natural enemies to add value to Iowa agriculture

Project ID: XP2012-07

This 3-year grant for $87,473 was awarded in 2012.

Location: Statewide

The investigators will develop an outreach program to show Iowa stakeholders how they can increase the ecosystem services of wild pollinators and natural pest enemies. They will implement a paired-comparison experiment on five ISU farms throughout the state to test the hypothesis that adding a refuge of perennial plants attractive to beneficial insects will improve the delivery of ecosystems services to soybean and melon production. They will calculate a partial budget to isolate the effects of the beneficial insects-enhancement treatment on the value of the marketable harvest of muskmelon and soybean.

Matthew E. O’Neal

Matthew E. O’Neal Matthew O’Neal is an assistant professor in the ISU Department of Entomology. His research is focused on developing ecologically and economically sustainable insect pest management programs for soybean. He received his Ph.D. in Entomology from Michigan State University in 2002 and his M.S. in Entomology from the University of Illinois. [Contact lead investigator]

Co-Investigator(s):

Mark Gleason, ISU Plant Pathology and Microbiology; Cindy Haynes, ISU Horticulture and Agriculture Education; Donald Lewis, ISU Entomology; Andy Joseph, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship; Michael Duffy, ISU Economics


This competitive grant project is part of the Leopold Center's Cross-Cutting Initiative.

Topics: Biocontrol and Integrated Pest Management