scholarly journals Supporting Bees in Cities: How Bees Are Influenced by Local and Landscape Features

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Anthony C. Ayers ◽  
Sandra M. Rehan
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Diversity ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Landscape Features ◽  
Pollinator Abundance ◽  
Cavity Nesting ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
Variable Influence ◽  
Urban Matrix

Urbanization is a major anthropogenic driver of decline for ecologically and economically important taxa including bees. Despite their generally negative impact on pollinators, cities can display a surprising degree of biodiversity compared to other landscapes. The pollinating communities found within these environments, however, tend to be filtered by interacting local and landscape features that comprise the urban matrix. Landscape and local features exert variable influence on pollinators within and across taxa, which ultimately affects community composition in such a way that contributes to functional trait homogenization and reduced phylogenetic diversity. Although previous results are not easily generalizable, bees and pollinators displaying functional trait characteristics such as polylectic diet, cavity-nesting behavior, and later emergence appear most abundant across different examined cities. To preserve particularly vulnerable species, most notably specialists that have become underrepresented within city communities, green spaces like parks and urban gardens have been examined as potential refuges. Such spaces are scattered across the urban matrix and vary in pollinator resource availability. Therefore, ensuring such spaces are optimized for pollinators is imperative. This review examines how urban features affect pollinators in addition to ways these green spaces can be manipulated to promote greater pollinator abundance and diversity.

scholarly journals Detecting the Cool Island Effect of Urban Parks in Wuhan: A City on Rivers

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
Qijiao Xie ◽  
Jing Li
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Urban Parks ◽  
High Water ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Heat Island ◽  
Island Effect ◽  
Urban Heat

As a nature-based solution, development of urban blue-green spaces is widely accepted for mitigating the urban heat island (UHI) effect. It is of great significance to determine the main driving factors of the park cool island (PCI) effect for optimizing park layout and achieving a maximum cooling benefit of urban parks. However, there have been obviously controversial conclusions in previous studies due to varied case contexts. This study was conducted in Wuhan, a city with high water coverage, which has significant differences in context with the previous case cities. The PCI intensity and its correlation with park characteristics were investigated based on remote sensing data. The results indicated that 36 out of 40 urban parks expressed a PCI effect, with a PCI intensity of 0.08~7.29 °C. As expected, larger parks with enough width had stronger PCI intensity. An increased density of hardened elements in a park could significantly weaken PCI effect. Noticeably, in this study, water bodies in a park contributed the most to the PCI effect of urban parks, while the vegetated areas showed a negative impact on the PCI intensity. It implied that in a context with higher water coverage, the cooling effect of vegetation was weakened or even masked by water bodies, due to the interaction effect of different variables on PCI intensity.

A PROMISING ASSORTMENT OF TREES AND SHRUBS FOR LANDSCAPING IN VOLGOGRAD CITY

2021 ◽  
pp. 5-18
Author(s):  
E.N. Tyukhtina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Ornamental Plants ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Ecological Situation ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
High Level ◽  
The City ◽  
Trees And Shrubs

The article deals with one of the most relevant topics of the modern city and ecology - the problem of landscaping in Volgograd. The city is characterized by an industrial urbanism, with a high concentration of population, saturation of production facilities and vehicles, which contributes to a high level of negative impact on the environment. The pace of greening of the city lags behind the pace of construction of the residential sector, and the existing green spaces do not meet the sanitary and hygienic, aesthetic requirements. The prospects of this problem are determined, the existing green spaces are considered, data on the climatic conditions of the city and the ecological situation are given. Improvement in the field of landscaping is associated with the scientifically sound placement of green spaces, taking into account all the factors that affect the growth and development of plants in the urban environment. Unfortunately, due to the uneven distribution of the assortment of trees and shrubs, the species composition of the central streets and squares of the city is extremely poor. The study focuses on the role of the botanical garden in urban landscaping and aims to create recommendations for the sorting of tree and shrub plants for urban landscaping. As a result of the analysis of the assortment of ornamental plants of the open ground of the botanical garden, the article proposed species and varieties of woody and shrubby plants that have passed the introduction tests for more than 5-10 years. Recommendations for sorting are aimed at improving the ecological situation of the city and greening the recreation areas of citizens. The proposed list of tree and shrub species cannot fully solve the problem of greening the city, but it will help to significantly enrich the composition of tree and shrub plants.

scholarly journals Reducing Native Ant Abundance Decreases Predation Rates in Midwestern Grasslands

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 1360-1368
Author(s):  
B D Wills ◽  
T N Kim ◽  
A F Fox ◽  
C Gratton ◽  
D A Landis
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Common Garden ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Natural Prey ◽  
Significant Negative Impact ◽  
Predator Abundance ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
Lasius Neoniger ◽  
Predation Rates

Abstract Diverse and robust predator communities are important for effective prey suppression in natural and managed communities. Ants are ubiquitous components of terrestrial systems but their contributions to natural prey suppression is relatively understudied in temperate regions. Growing evidence suggests that ants can play a significant role in the removal of insect prey within grasslands, but their impact is difficult to separate from that of nonant predators. To test how ants may contribute to prey suppression in grasslands, we used poison baits (with physical exclosures) to selectively reduce the ant population in common garden settings, then tracked ant and nonant ground predator abundance and diversity, and removal of sentinel egg prey for 7 wk. We found that poison baits reduced ant abundance without a significant negative impact on abundance of nonant ground predators, and that a reduction in ant abundance decreased the proportion of sentinel prey eggs removed. Even a modest decrease (~20%) in abundance of several ant species, including the numerically dominant Lasius neoniger Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), significantly reduced sentinel prey removal rates. Our results suggest that ants disproportionately contribute to ground-based predation of arthropod prey in grasslands. Changes in the amount of grasslands on the landscape and its management may have important implications for ant prevalence and natural prey suppression services in agricultural landscapes.

scholarly journals Origins and Assembly of Malesian Rainforests

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Kooyman ◽  
Robert J. Morley ◽  
Darren M. Crayn ◽  
Elizabeth M. Joyce ◽  
Maurizio Rossetto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Indian Plate ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Australian Plate ◽  
Floristic Elements ◽  
Adaptive Radiations ◽  
Abundance And Diversity

Unraveling the origins of Malesia's once vast, hyperdiverse rainforests is a perennial challenge. Major contributions to rainforest assembly came from floristic elements carried on the Indian Plate and montane elementsfrom the Australian Plate (Sahul). The Sahul component is now understood to include substantial two-way exchanges with Sunda inclusive of lowland taxa. Evidence for the relative contributions of the great Asiatic floristic interchanges (GAFIs) with India and Sahul, respectively, to the flora of Malesia comes from contemporary lineage distributions, the fossil record, time-calibrated phylogenies, functional traits, and the spatial structure of genetic diversity. Functional-trait and biome conservatism are noted features of montane austral lineages from Sahul (e.g., diverse Podocarpaceae), whereas the abundance and diversity of lowland lineages, including Syzygium (Myrtaceae) and the Asian dipterocarps (Dipterocarpoideae), reflect a less well understood combination of dispersal, ecology, and adaptive radiations. Thus, Malesian rainforest assembly has been shaped by sharply contrasting evolutionary origins and biogeographic histories.

scholarly journals The best wildflowers for wild bees

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 819-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel N. Nichols ◽  
Dave Goulson ◽  
John M. Holland
Keyword(s):  
Native Bees ◽  
Convolvulus Arvensis ◽  
Wild Bees ◽  
Pollinator Abundance ◽  
Wild Bee ◽  
Anthyllis Vulneraria ◽  
Important Food Source ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Species Being

Abstract Governmental agri-environment schemes (AES) aim to improve pollinator abundance and diversity on farmland by sowing wildflower seed mixes. These often contain high proportions of Fabaceae, particularly Trifolium (clovers), which are attractive to some bumblebee species, but not to most of the ~ 240 solitary bee species in the UK. Here we identify wildflowers that are attractive to a greater range of wild bee species. Forty-five wildflower species being farmed for commercial seed production on a single farm were surveyed for native bees. Bee walks were conducted through discrete wildflower areas from April until August in 2018. The results indicate that including a range of Apiaceae, Asteraceae, and Geraniaceae in seed mixes would cater for a wide diversity of bee species. A total of 14 wildflower species across nine families attracted 37 out of the 40 bee species recorded on the farm, and accounted for 99.7% of all visitations. Only two of these 14 species are included in current AES pollinator mixes. Unexpectedly, few visits were made by bumblebees to Trifolium spp. (0.5%), despite their being considered an important food source for bumblebees, while Anthyllis vulneraria and Geranium pratense were highly attractive. For solitary bees, Crepis capillaris, Sinapsis arvensis, Convolvulus arvensis and Chaerophyllum temulum were amongst the best performing species, none of which are usually included in sown flower mixes. We suggest that the standard ‘pollinator’ mixes used in AES might be updated to include some of these wildflower species, and trialled as seed mixes on farmland.

scholarly journals The potential of electricity transmission corridors in forested areas as bumblebee habitat

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 160525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Hill ◽  
Ignasi Bartomeus
Keyword(s):  
Transmission Lines ◽  
Plant Density ◽  
Current Management ◽  
Electricity Transmission ◽  
Main Determinant ◽  
Pollinator Abundance ◽  
Management Regime ◽  
Natural Grasslands ◽  
Forested Areas ◽  
Abundance And Diversity

Declines in pollinator abundance and diversity are not only a conservation issue, but also a threat to crop pollination. Maintained infrastructure corridors, such as those containing electricity transmission lines, are potentially important wild pollinator habitat. However, there is a lack of evidence comparing the abundance and diversity of wild pollinators in transmission corridors with other important pollinator habitats. We compared the diversity of a key pollinator group, bumblebees ( Bombus spp.), between transmission corridors and the surrounding semi-natural and managed habitat types at 10 sites across Sweden's Uppland region. Our results show that transmission corridors have no impact on bumblebee diversity in the surrounding area. However, transmission corridors and other maintained habitats such as roadsides have a level of bumblebee abundance and diversity comparable to semi-natural grasslands and host species that are important for conservation and ecosystem service provision. Under the current management regime, transmission corridors already provide valuable bumblebee habitat, but given that host plant density is the main determinant of bumblebee abundance, these areas could potentially be enhanced by establishing and maintaining key host plants. We show that in northern temperate regions the maintenance of transmission corridors has the potential to contribute to bumblebee conservation and the ecosystem services they provide.

scholarly journals Thinking outside the park: recommendations for camera trapping mammal communities in the urban matrix

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J Herrera ◽  
Sophie M Moore ◽  
D T Tyler Flockhart ◽  
William J McShea ◽  
Michael V Cove
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Sampling Methods ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Urban Wildlife ◽  
Camera Trapping ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Urban Habitat ◽  
Occupancy Models ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Urban Matrix

Abstract Urbanization is increasing globally, fragmenting habitats and prompting human–wildlife conflict. Urban wildlife research is concurrently expanding, but sampling methods are often biased towards large and intact habitats in public green spaces, neglecting the far more abundant, but degraded, habitats in the urban matrix. Here, we introduce the Five P’s of Urban Ecology—Partnerships, Planning, Placements, Public participation and Processing—as a path to overcoming the logistical barriers often associated with camera-trapping in the urban matrix. Though the Five P’s can be applied to a variety of urban sampling methods, we showcase the camera-trapping efforts of the DC Cat Count project in Washington, DC, as a case study. We compared occupancy models for eight urban mammal species using broad categorizations of land cover and local land use to determine drivers of mammal occurrence within the urban matrix as compared with urban habitat patches. Many native species maintained a strong association with large, semi-natural green spaces, but occupancy was not limited to these locations, and in some cases, the use of private yards and the built environment were not notably different. Furthermore, some species exhibited higher occupancy probabilities in developed areas over green spaces. Though seemingly intuitive, we offer advice on how to greatly reduce habitat-biased sampling methods in urban wildlife research and illustrate the importance of doing so to ensure accurate results that support the formation of effective urban planning and policy.

scholarly journals “Farming with Alternative Pollinators” approach increases pollinator abundance and diversity in faba bean fields

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahlam Sentil ◽  
Patrick Lhomme ◽  
Denis Michez ◽  
Sara Reverté ◽  
Pierre Rasmont ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Faba Bean ◽  
Cultivated Plants ◽  
Pollinator Decline ◽  
Flower Visitor ◽  
North West ◽  
Pollinator Abundance ◽  
Main Crop ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
Habitat Enhancement ◽  
The Impact

AbstractPollinators are threatened worldwide and strategies and measures to support their conservation are proliferating. Among them, the approach “Farming with Alternative Pollinators” (FAP) aims to support pollinators by seeding strips of pollinator-attracting cultivated plants surrounding the crops, and simultaneously providing income to the farmer. In this study we assessed whether this approach supports pollinator diversity in agro-ecosystems and increases flower visitor diversity and abundance in faba bean fields in north-west Morocco. We tested the impact of FAP using a variety of marketable habitat enhancement plants (MHEP): flax, coriander, arugula, chia and canola. A total of 62 pollinator species were recorded, among which almost half of them are new records for the region. Most wild pollinators recorded in faba bean were digger bees (genus Anthophora) and long-horn bees (genus Eucera). MHEP shared diverse flower visitors with faba bean and hosted diverse pollinator groups that did not meet their food requirements from the main crop. The FAP approach highly increased flower visitor abundance and diversity in the whole FAP fields, however it did not generate significant pollinator spillover towards the main crop. Implications for insect conservation: our results show that the FAP approach is an effective approach to mitigate pollinator decline in agro-ecosystems.

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