Nesting habitat enhancement for wild bees within soybean fields increases crop production

Bee diversity is declining in agricultural landscapes, altering pollination services that may support or enhance crop yields. Pollination services provided by wild bees are often limited to field margins adjacent to natural habitats, but methods to increase pollinators and their ecosystem services within field interiors remain elusive. Evidence is growing that wild bees enhance yields of flowering crops, including soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill). We tested responses of bee communities and soybean yield following pollinator exclosure and nesting manipulation experiments within production areas of the United States. We found that pollinator exclosures resulted in lower seed yield of soybean plants, and providing nesting substrate resulted in a yield increase as well as increases in ground-nesting bees. We provide evidence for soybean-associated bees and suggest these species may benefit from supplemental nesting substrate within production areas and increase soybean yields.